


Daylight (Calum Hood AU)

by highkeylukey



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, Heartbreak, Heartbreaker, Malum and Luke hate each other basicallu, Parties, also maybe a tiny slide of Muke??, and Cami's like yo i'll just break calum's heart, and a lot of OCs but they're cool i promise, dares, highschool, it's funny I promise, not me, punk malum, relationship, there's fluff and angst and smut, who knows - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-26 22:51:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 47
Words: 103,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6258940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highkeylukey/pseuds/highkeylukey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I loved a challenge. And breaking a heartbreaker’s heart? Well, that was interesting…"</p><p>OR</p><p>When Luke's best friend moves to Australia, she makes a vow to take revenge on Calum Hood, the school's bad boy, for having broken so many hearts...</p><p>(I promise lots of fun, lots of drama and actual good grammar)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Break your little heart

CHAPTER 1: Break your little heart – All Time Low 

Cami’s POV:

I woke up to the sound of my mom telling me we had landed. I yawned and sleepily opened my eyes to see that the plane had, in fact, landed in the Sydney airport. I gaped as I saw how bright the sun was shining. When we’d left Washington DC a little over fifteen hours ago, it was pouring outside. I guessed the weather would be an improvement.

When my parents had announced that we were moving to Australia a few weeks ago, I had had mixed feelings about it. While Sam was more than excited to discover a new place and way of life, I was never one for big changes. As exciting as new beginnings were, I wasn’t too happy to be leaving my old life behind, contrary to my older sister Jane, who had just gone through a bad break-up. Not that my life in the US was perfect, far from it, but I had a couple of good friends I knew I would miss. However, living in Sydney meant reuniting with Luke, my best friend of all time, who’d moved back there a year ago.

I gathered my stuff and followed my parents and siblings out of the plane. We went to get our suitcases and then walked to the exit, where people were waiting to greet their newly arrived friends. My eyes quickly scanned the crowd and my heart jumped to my throat as I spotted my best friend waiting for me in the crowd. Immediately I left my family’s side and ran over to him.

“Hey,” I smiled widely as the blond boy pulled me into a tight embrace.  
“Cami,” Luke breathed. “I missed you so much, you have no idea.”  
“I think I do,” I grinned. “It’s good to have you back.”  
“Same goes for you. Oh my god, we have so many things to talk about,” he gushed.  
“Yeah, can we start with your height? What the hell happened to the little kid I knew? Since when are you a giraffe?” I exclaimed teasingly.  
“I had a growth spurt around a year ago.”  
“A ‘growth spurt’?” I quoted him. “Glad to see some things never change, mister nerd.”  
“Glad to see you’re still a jackass!”  
“You know me,” I winked, and he laughed.  
“Where are your parents? And Jane and Sam? I haven’t talked to them in forever.”

I lead him back through the crowd to my family. It was an explosion of joy as my parents greeted the boy who had once been like a second son to them. Sam being only one year younger than me, the two of them had always been good friends too and had shared countless tense gaming nights while I just watched, stuffing my face with popcorn (sugary of course, and no judging please). Jane and Luke had never been close, but they were on good terms, so they hugged briefly and exchanged a few polite words.

Luke had taken a cab to the airport, so he just hitched a ride back with us. We were gonna live in a house only a few streets from his, which meant a lot of sleepovers to look forward to. Luke, Sam and I explored the house together while my parents and Jane took care of the luggage. It was big but not huge, with two floors and a nice garden. I was the first one to claim my bedroom. It was on the upper floor and could only be accessed to by a small corridor behind a door, which separated it from the rest of the house and gave me the taste of independency I so desperately craved. Luke immediately agreed with my choice, saying it’d be very practical for sleepovers.

“We won’t need to move at all!” He exclaimed. “There’s a bathroom right here,” he indicated, pointing at a blue door that I hadn’t noticed. “And we can just transform this area,” he pointed at a part of the room, “into a mini-kitchen.”  
I huffed. Leave it to Luke to think of the food. He was right though.  
“And I can put all my clothes here!” I said, discovering the shelves behind the gliding doors of the corridor. “This is such a smart dressing room.”  
“This is just like a small apartment all for yourself,” Luke grinned. “I’m so jealous.”  
“Aww poor babe. I still need to update my parents on how this is my bedroom though,” I suddenly remembered and ran downstairs to tell them.

They agreed (I didn’t really give them any choice), and I proceeded to start unpacking my stuff and installing it in my newfound bedroom. Our furniture had already arrived a few days ago, and Luke helped me move in. The rest of my family did the same, my brother having claimed the other bedroom on the second floor while my parents had the master bedroom downstairs and my sister had the small bedroom next to it. She wouldn’t really live there anyway since she went to university and would stay at the dorm.

After I’d installed most of my stuff, I made Luke tell me more about the school.

“It’s pretty cool, but you know, same as everywhere, there’s a huge gap between the normal people and the ‘popular’ fuckheads…”  
I rose my eyebrows at the violent not-typical-of-Luke term he employed.  
“Thinking of someone in particular?”  
“Nah…yes. Sorry, it’s just I’m so fucking pissed at some of the jocks at the moment.”  
“Why? What happened?”  
“I don’t even know, a girl’s heart broken here, a few insults thrown there, the next thing you know I’m getting beat up by a gang of crazy fuckers.”  
“What? How do I not know about this? How did you not tell me this before?”  
He shrugged.  
“I forgot…”

I narrowed my eyes at him and he quickly amended himself.  
“I just didn’t wanna worry you. It’s nothing big, a teacher stepped in before it got too violent, but I’m just pissed at the lot of them.”  
“I’m sorry… Who’s the girl?”  
Luke blushed lightly and looked away.  
“Lukey… Is there something you aren’t telling me? Are you having a small crush that you haven’t told me about?” I said in a sugar-sweet voice.  
“No…yes…I don’t know… We’re just friends, but yeah…she’s cute. Anyway one of these guys made her believe they could actually have something, enough for her to give up her virginity for him… He broke it off the next morning. And as if that wasn’t enough, he mocked her and called her names for being so gullible. That’s how the whole thing started I guess, I got really pissed at Michael and his friends, and it turned into a hatred thing.”  
“Michael?”  
“Yeah, that’s the cheating son of a bitch who broke Rebecca’s heart.”  
“Ugh, I hate those types… I wish there was some way I could help.”  
Luke was about to shake his head when something suddenly lighted in his eyes.  
“What? What is it?”   
“Well, there’s actually something you could do…”  
“What? Anything, I’ll do it.”  
“Well, you know how these guys are always the ones taking advantage of girls and breaking their hearts… How about they got their heart broken instead?”  
“What are you thinking of?” I asked, but could already feel a smile form at my lips as I understood what he was implying.

I loved a challenge. And breaking a heartbreaker’s heart? Well, that was interesting…


	2. New Americana

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO! pls comment and kudos if you like ^^

CHAPTER 2: New Americana – Halsey 

Cami’s POV:

The next morning, my mom dropped me off to school on her way to work. I walked a little hesitantly to the gates, trying not to look too lost while at the same time frantically looking for Luke. He’d told me he was already there, but he was nowhere to see. While I waited for him to magically appear to my eyes, I examined the people around me. I watched as group of friends ran towards each other, happy to be reunited after the summer break. Or was it winter? I was so confused with the seasons here.

Anyway, nobody really caught my eye; it was mostly guys high-fiving and giving each other friendly pats on the back and girls squealing as they hugged the life of each other. I felt a pang as I thought of Veronica and Emily, my two girl besties I’d left behind. We were exactly the type to embarrass ourselves with excessive demonstrations of affection. I figured I’d have to find myself girl friends here too, because as much as I loved Luke, they were absolutely necessary when it came to gossip or advice on clothing and boys. Plus girls’ night was the single most amazing thing ever. Hopefully I’d be able to integrate myself in Luke’s group of friends, which seemed to include at least Rebecca.

“Cami baby!” Luke yelled in my ear, making me jump.  
“Dude!” I complained.  
“Not sorry,” he said, grinning widely. “Come on, we have a little time before class starts, I’ll show you around the school.”

It turned out the school was pretty small compared to the one I used to go to. There was one building for classrooms, one for the cafeteria and the library, a gymnasium and a small park where we could lay and eat our lunch when it was warm (so always). I liked it.

The first bell rang and Luke and I hurried to class. I’d gotten my timetable off the Internet a few days earlier, and we shared most of our classes. First hour was maths, and I mentally groaned when the teacher entered. He looked as boring as the subject he taught. It was hard enough to stay awake on Monday mornings; I didn’t need further encouragement to fall asleep in class.

Thank god Luke entertained me as he pointed out the different people in the room, giving me some background information on each one of them. So I learned that Sophie, the strawberry blonde girl with the perfect hourglass body, was known for being a major bitch and making a habit of sucking guys off in the bathroom. Yikes. James, a quite good-looking brunet, was captain of the soccer team and often threw gigantic, amazing parties. The quiet Anabelle aced her every class and spent all her time reading books in the library, but she was really nice and never refused to explain a lesson to you. Next to her was Lilah, who was a good friend of Rebecca’s and with whom Luke had hung out with a few times, even if she wasn’t part of his immediate circle of friends. Luke grimaced in distaste as he told me that Eric, the athletic blond sitting at the back of the room, was a major asshole who also happened to be Michael’s friend.

“Is that the one whose heart you want me to break?” I asked dubiously as I looked him over.

It’s not that I didn’t want to go through with the plan Luke and I had come up with yesterday, but James really wasn’t my type. I’d somehow hoped that my victim would be hot, so that the whole thing would also be enjoyable to me on another level…  
Luke shrugged.

“If you want. You take your pick from the group; I’ll show you the rest of them later. Though I was kind of hoping you’d go for Michael’s best friend.”  
“Why not Michael himself?”  
“Because one, wouldn’t that be horrible to Rebecca? And two, he’s a year above so it’d be less easy to approach him,” Luke reasoned.

I nodded, agreeing with him on the first part. As for accessibility, from what I knew from the popular crowd at home, they were pretty inaccessible anyway, so…  
“And who’s that mysterious best friend?”  
“Calum Hood,” Luke said grimly.

...

After math, we had a dreadful double Biology hour together, and then I left for my French class while he had Spanish. I hesitated a bit at the threshold of the door, considering I knew no one in my class. Then I spotted Lilah sitting alone at one of the tables, and considering what Luke had told me, I thought I could safely ask to sit next to her without being rejected humiliatingly. Thankfully I was right. The brunette smiled and nodded.

“Sure. You’re the new girl, right?”  
“Yeah, I freshly arrived from America yesterday,” I said. “My name’s Camille, but everyone calls me Cami.”  
“I like it,” she laughed. “I’m Lilah. I saw you sitting next to Luke in Maths, do you guys know each other?”  
“Uh yeah, we’re besties. He used to go to my school in America before he moved here.”  
“Cool! So are you like, friends, or friends?” She asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

I full out laughed.

“Oh my god no! I could never think of Luke that way! We’re just friends.”  
“Why? Are you lesbian or something?”  
“No…” I frowned and she shrugged, smiling.  
“Cause I mean damn, that boy is hot!”

I laughed again and rolled my eyes at her devilish smirk.

It wasn’t like I was unaware of how good-looking Luke was, with his pretty blue eyes and golden hair, but I’d never thought of him that way. He’d always been just a friend in my eyes, and I knew he felt the same about me. Besides, he wasn’t exactly my type. I wasn’t into the whole surfer-boy thing, but preferred guys with tanned skin and dark hair—

Right on cue, the door opened and the guy who entered seemed to be the embodiment of my idea of physical perfection. He was tall and lean with caramel-toned skin, artfully messy black hair with blonde highlights, high cheekbones, full lips and a sharp jawline. The childishness of his round cheeks was in stark contrast with the tattoos on his arms, which gave off a definite badass look. He smirked as he looked around the room for a place to sit, as if he was oh-so-superior to all of us, and even his smirk was insanely hot.

“Hello-o? Earth to Cami?” Lilah said, shaking me out of my awestruck daze. “What were you staring at?”

With a movement of the head, I designated the god-like boy, who was now making his way to the back of the classroom.

“Oh, I get it,” Lilah said with a light laugh. “Don’t worry, the enchantment wears off pretty quickly once you realize how big of an asshole he is.”  
“Who is that?”  
“That’s the major douchebag also known as Calum.”

Calum? This was the guy whose heart Luke wanted me to break? Hell yeah, I was in.

I was about to ask Lilah details about him when the teacher walked in and shushed us. The class drudged on as we went over basic stuff like how to say where you’d been during the holidays. I was bored out of my mind, considering I was fluent. My mom was French, so I’d lived there when I was young, and while it was totally great to be bilingual, right now I just wished I was as clueless as my classmates when the teacher made mistakes.

An hour of endless cringing later, it was finally lunch period. Lilah invited me to eat with her and her friends, and I followed her to the cafeteria, where we met up with a few other girls.

“Okay, so guys, this is Cami. She’s new from America and Luke’s friend. Cami, this is Louisa, Rebecca and Jennifer.”

I smiled and said hi to them one after the other. Louisa and Rebecca looked really alike with their dark curls and pale skin, but where Louisa had light brown eyes, Rebecca’s were black as coal. I could immediately understand why Luke had a crush on her. She was gorgeous. Jennifer was more discreet with her long ash-blond hair and pale blue eyes, but out of the three, she was the most friendly to me as she took the time to elucidate the mystery of the Rebecca and Louisa’s resemblance.

“They’re half-sisters,” she told me, “and they live together. Louisa is a year younger but she jumped a year so she’s a senior too.”

The girls continued the conversation they were having before Lilah and I arrived as we waited in the lunch line. They were talking about a party that had been held at James’ the week before, and gossiping about who had been seen kissing whom, and who might be getting together. Lilah was thoughtful enough to point the different people they were speaking of out to me, making me feel more included in the conversation.

“So,” Louisa said, turning to me. “Have you got your eye on someone yet?”  
“Nah,” I lied swiftly as I picked up a drink and put in on my tray. “It’s my first day here. Haven’t seen many people yet.”  
“Liar liar pants on fire!” Lilah exclaimed. “She was practically drooling over Calum in French class.”  
“Oh, Calum! Yeah he’s hot,” Louisa nodded comprehensively. “He’s a total jerk though, friends with Michael and all.”

I shot a glance at Rebecca and saw her biting her lip anxiously.

“Can someone please show me this Michael? I’ve heard so much about him and I still don’t know what he even looks like,” I complained as we made our way to a table.  
“There he is,” Jennifer pointed.

I followed her gaze and saw a tall, pale guy with dyed red hair, arcade piercing and green eyes. He seemed to carry the same badass vibe as Calum had with his leather jacket and ripped skinny jeans. Speaking of which, the boy carried his tray over to a table where Calum was sitting.

“Okay, I kind of get what the whole fuss is about,” I admitted.  
“Yeah… But you shouldn’t get close to any of those guys,” Rebecca spoke up. “They’re all lying sons-of-bitches, the lot of them,” she said bitterly, and Jennifer put a soothing hand on her shoulder.

Lilah looked at me as if to explain the situation, but I mouthed at her that I knew. She raised an eyebrow and I mouthed Luke’s name, to which she nodded comprehensively.

“You know Luke got beat up because of what Michael did,” Louisa told me, having apparently caught our wordless exchange.  
“Yeah I know,” I said grimly. “Hey, can you tell me more about Calum?”  
“Sure… He has this I-don’t-care attitude, which is really infuriating. He’s always really sarcastic, often mean. He has this girlfriend, but it doesn’t stop him from flirting with girls, and rumor has it he even has sex with them.”

Wow. Sounded like the asshole Luke had hinted he was. He really deserved getting his heart broken… But I wasn’t stupid. I was perfectly aware there was a very low chance of me succeeding, because even if I managed to catch his attention, there was no way he would ever fall for me, and that would kind of defeat the point of breaking his heart. A guy who treated girls like pieces of meat wasn’t very likely to change his ideas for someone like me. I wasn’t bad-looking or anything, but I wasn’t anything special…

“Hey Cami!” Luke’s voice sounded from behind me.  
“Hey you,” I smiled. “How was Spanish?”  
“Biene,” he replied with a half-smile. “Do you mind if we sit with you guys?” He asked the girls, motioning to the two boys standing behind him.  
“No bother,” Lilah quickly said, sending him a brilliant smile.

Oh, I smelled something there…

Luke introduced me to his friends, Ethan and Jeremy. Ethan, the boy with shaggy dark hair and chocolate brown eyes, instantly went over to Jennifer and gave her a quick kiss.

“They’ve been dating for a year and a half now,” Luke told me quietly.

Jeremy was a really tall kid with light-brown hair and pretty green eyes. He plumped down on the other side of Luke, who sat next to me. The lunch hour went by pretty quickly as we chatted away mindlessly.

“By the way Luke,” I whispered to him. “I saw Calum.”  
“What do you think?”  
“I think that I’m willing to try, but I doubt it’ll work. He looks like a tough nut to crack and I’m not that special.”

Luke scoffed.

“Are you kidding? There’s a reason you’re my best friend.”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help a smile.

“Okay then. When do we put the plan in action?”  
“How about now? He’s in our next class.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and kudos?

CHAPTER 3: Going to Hell – The Pretty Reckless

Calum’s POV:

A sigh left my lips as the bell rang, indicating the start of classes. I exchanged a glance with the equally annoyed Michael. He ran a hand through his newly red-dyed hair and shrugged.

“I gotta go. Got fucking Spanish and I’ll get detention if I’m not on time. That teacher’s a bitch.”  
“I feel you,” I grumbled. “I have English. Can you hear me throwing up?”  
“Yeah. It’s pretty gross to be honest. Oh well, see you tomorrow, I guess. Tell me what happens with Linda, yeah?”  
“Sure. Bye,” I told him as I stood up to go to class.

The teacher wasn’t here when I arrived, but all the kids had already sat down like the goodie-doers they were, patiently waiting for the teacher to deign us with his presence. I scanned the room quickly to see that there were empty seats at the third row. Perfect. Far enough from the front to do my own shit, but not far enough for the teacher to pay extra attention to me. I sat down on the empty seat and pulled out my phone, checking the few messages I’d received throughout lunch. I never checked it when I ate: food was holy. 

From Anika: Hey it’s been a while, want some tonite?

From James: Partyy this weekend, u in?

From Grace: Call me asap we need 2 talk

I grimaced at the last message and started replying to the others.

To Anika: Sure babe ;)

To James: ofc mate what time?

I briefly considered telling Grace to come by my place tonight so we could make things clear, but decided against it. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with her today, plus I’d just told Anika I would sleep over at hers. I sighed. There were way too many girls in my life… And I totally loved it.

“Sorry…um, hi…” A feminine asked next to me.

I looked up from my phone to meet a pair of deep blue eyes. I’d never seen this girl before, and I wasted no time noticing how hot she was. Startling blue eyes, sensual rosy lips, long wavy brown hair, slim waist, long legs and a medium but perfectly shaped chest. Damn.

“I’m new, and I wondered if I could sit here?” She asked timidly, and I nodded, smirking.

She sat next to me and took out her stuff out quietly, not sparing me one more glance. I narrowed my eyes at her as class started. There were only three possible reasons when a girl didn’t check me out:

1\. She was lesbian  
2\. She was asexual  
3\. She wanted to catch my attention

Looking at her, I opted for the third option. Not only was it more agreeable for me to think, but I had a sort of instinct for players. But darling, I was the best at this game. Always.

I shifted closer to her as the teacher started talking, my arm brushing against hers.

“What’s your name, pretty thing?” I asked.  
“Cami,” she said shortly before turning me to me, a small smile playing at her lips. “And you’re ‘the major douchebag also known as Calum’.”  
“Heard of me already huh? Tell me, is that because some obsessed kid told you all about me or because you were so amazed by my good looks that you just had to ask who I was?”

Cami rolled her eyes.

“Obviously it’s because I was struck senseless by your hotness,” she said, her words dripping with sarcasm.

I grinned. Either she really had been brainwashed about how to interest me, or she had good instincts. I had a soft spot for fierce girls. I looked her over again, once again taking note of her sexiness, but turned away just as she was about to meet my eyes. We ignored each other and faked concentrating on the lesson (or at least I faked it) for around ten minutes before I sensed her gaze on my face. I let her linger there for almost thirty seconds before sighing dramatically.

“Ugh, please. I know I’m beautiful but quit the staring, will you?”

She let out an inaudible gasp, probably shocked by my arrogance (I got that a lot), and I just smirked at her.

“I know it’s hard, but please try. It almost gets uncomfortable sometimes.”

Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to probably snap at me when the teacher suddenly spoke up sharply.

“Mr. Hood, is there something you would like to share with the class?”  
“No Ma’am,” I answered ever so politely, but the underlying irony heavy enough that everyone in the class picked up on it and couldn’t help a collective chuckle.

She let out a huff.

“Then please concentrate. As I was saying, you’ll be working on this project in a group of two. Throughout the year, we’ll have similar projects, your partner being the person sitting next to you.”

I threw a cheeky grin in Cami’s direction. I wouldn’t mind special working-on-a-project time with her. Especially if the project in question involved a certain area of—

“Calum, are you even listening to me?” Cami said in annoyance.  
“Hmmm yeah sure.”  
“Why the hell did I ever think sitting next to you was a good idea,” she sighed.  
“Because I’m flamingly hot and you couldn’t resist the idea of one-on-one ‘working’ sessions with me?” I asked, smirking suggestively.

She shot me a look of pure disgust and ignored my statement.

“So, I thought we could work on Pride and Prejudice, what do you say?”  
“Uh…sure… What’s the project again?”  
“We have to present a book which portrays the 19th century society, and I happen to like Pride and Prejudice.”  
“Why do you get to choose the book?” I huffed.  
“Do you have a better idea?” She asked sharply, clearly done with my bullshit.

I resisted the urge to laugh, instead smiling ironically.

“Okay then. I trust you’re aware I haven’t read this book…”  
“What?” She said incredulously. “Are you telling me you’ve never read Pride and Prejudice?”  
“Nope.”

She looked so horrified it was fucking hilarious.

“Can I ask what that book has that’s so special?”  
“Darcy,” she muttered.  
“What?”  
“Nothing. It’s just a great book. And you better read it within the next month since the project’s due then.”  
“Sorry babe, but I don’t have it.”  
“Then buy it!”

I snorted.

“Like I don’t have better stuff to waste my money on.”

She just shook her head and turned back towards the front of the class, her body tense with anger. I stifled a chuckle and took out my phone, sending a quick text to Michael.

To Mike: new american hottie next to me. feisty

His reply came instantly. He must have been just as bored as me.

From Mike: pic?

I discreetly snapped a picture of Cami and sent it to him.

From Mike: Fuck

To Mike: forget it I call dibs ;)

From Mike: Duuude

To Mike: Nah she’s a tough one. You like em easy anyway

From Mike: Not always :p remember Rebecca?

To Mike: how could I forget I got a fuckin black eye from Luke over that girl

From Mike: Yeh sorry bout that

To Mike: right. Next time don’t chose the one with the bloodthirsty lovey dovey friend

The bell chose that moment to ring and I put my stuff away, winking Cami a goodbye and just catching her amused eye-roll before I left the room. So she wasn’t that mad at me…shocker.


	4. Teenagers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again, comment and kudos if you enjoy!! i really appreciate it x)

CHAPTER 4: Teenagers – My Chemical Romance

Cami’s POV:

“I hate him,” I announced as I plumped down on my bed. “He’s insufferable.”

“But you’ll still go with it, right?” Luke said with a light smirk.

I swear that boy knew me too well.

“Of course! Plus have you seen how hot he is?”

Luke laughed out loud and jumped on the bed next to me.

“I knew you’d enjoy this! We just need a plan of action.”

I narrowed my eyes and smirked.

“How about you let me figure that out on my own? No offense, but I think I’m better at seducing boys than you are…”

“What do you know?” Luke huffed. “Did I never tell you what happened that one time Jeremy and I went into a gay bar?”

“No! Why the hell would you go to a gay bar anyway?”

“Cause it’s fun,” Luke laughed. “Also Jeremy’s gay.”

“Oh, alright. So what happened?”

“Well, Jeremy left me to go find his soulmate, and I was so lost in a crowd of guys who all wanted my body!”

“You’re such a drama queen. Poor babe, they ‘wanted your body’!” I mocked him and poked his flat stomach. “Who would want that body?”

It was obviously a joke, and Luke was well aware of it as he grinned.

“A crowd of gay guys apparently.”

“Right,” I sassed and fell back in the bed. “Today was so exhausting.”

“We didn’t do shit, though. It’s the first day of school,” Luke pointed out.

“Shut up smartass. It was still more tiring than back home.”

“’Home’,” Luke noted my use of the word.

“Well, this doesn’t feel exactly like home yet,” I sighed a bit sadly.

“We’ll make it feel like home,” Luke declared cheerily.

I broke into a smile and kissed his cheek.

“Anywhere with my bestie is good.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear! Now let’s put some food in that fridge,” Luke said, pointing towards the mini-fridge that my dad had installed next to a counter running   
down one of the walls.

“Sure thing.”

As we stole some goodies from the kitchen downstairs and brought them back to my bedroom, we exchanged stories about the worst teachers at our school. I smiled happily as I watched him chat away about his Spanish teacher in his strong Australian accent. It had faded over the years he’d spent in America, but now it was fully back and his pronunciation made me laugh so much. All in all it was nice to be in Australia, considering it was filled with beautiful Australian boys with beautiful Australian accents.

“Cami, you’re zoning out. I hope you weren’t thinking about Calum.”

“I wasn’t! It’s just I love your accent.”

Luke pouted.

“I like the American accent better. I miss American girls.”

“Um, hello-o! There’s one right here!”

“But that’s not the same…”

I snorted.

“Right, good to know I’m appreciated.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

I just glared at him, enjoying the guilt forming in his blue eyes.

“Cami… Don’t be mad please,” he pouted.

At my absence of response, he wrapped his arms around me.

“Please… Who will cuddle me without trying to cope a feel if you’re not here?”

I could help but chuckle at that, and he smiled at me widely.

“You narcissist dummy,” I laughed.

“You love me,” he said smugly.

“I do,” I assented with a roll of the eyes.

“God I missed you,” he exclaimed and pulled me into another hug.

I broke away from his embrace and stuck out my tongue to him.

“Little sentimental shit. Let’s get food and watch a movie on my bed.”

“Can we watch Mean Girls?” He asked with an angelic smile.

“You really haven’t changed.”

...

I grumbled as my alarm went off, blasting Teenagers by My Chemical Romance through my room. If I thought it’d put me in a better mood to listen to good music in the morning, I’d clearly underestimated my morning tiredness. I’d only been able to fall asleep at 2am (thanks jetlag). Also, texting Luke all night probably hadn’t helped either. 

With a sigh, I rose from my bed. Normally I wouldn’t mind sleeping for a half-hour more and just going to school looking like a raccoon, but I now had someone to impress and seduce. Ugh. I ran a hand through the mess that was my hair as I walked over to the dresser. Even despite my bad morning mood, I couldn’t help a proud smile as I opened the dresser, admiring how the clothes were all nicely folded or hanged, row upon row of them. And still not even half of the space was taken up. I made a mental note to ask my newfound girl friends to go on a shopping binge with me, and proceeded to pick out my outfit. Once satisfied with the blue skinny jeans and Sleeping With Sirens black crop-top, I took a quick shower and changed. Thank god I was blessed with a smooth acne-free skin, so the only make-up I applied on a daily basis was mascara and some eyeliner.

I checked myself in the mirror and smothered the urge to grimace before skipping down the stairs. My brother and mother were already up and about, my brother being at his third bowl of cereal. I swear boys eat so much. I emptied half a bowl myself before considering myself done. 

“Where’s dad?” I asked Sam, who only grunted in response. “Wow, thanks for your very intellectual input.”

He just flipped me off. What can I say? We shared the same hate for mornings.

“Sam, don’t flip your sister off,” my mom said calmly before turning to me. “He’s sleeping in. He’s taking a day off to finish the move.”

“Lucky fucker,” I muttered.

My mom dropped me off at school a little early, so I stood a bit alone on the parking lot as I waited for Luke to show up.

“Hey, new girl!” A very Australian voice yelled, and I turned around to see Lilah smirking at me next to an apple-green car. “Get over here.”

“Is that yours?” I asked in awe as I took in the obnoxious-colored car.

“No, it’s the Pope’s,” she winked.

“Oh, are you guys on good terms? I’m afraid I’m a few confessions behind,” I joked, making her laugh. “Where are the other girls?”

“Jennifer gets a ride from Ethan, you know her boyfriend. And Louisa and Rebecca take the bus, so they should be here any time.”

Right on cue, Louisa’s voice sounded at our ears.

“Yo, biatches!” She yelled from the other side of the parking lot, holding Luke’s arm in her hand. “Lookie what I found! A wild Luke!”

Luke waved at us awkwardly, and so did Rebecca, looking absolutely embarrassed of her sister who continued to yell at us, ignoring the looks she got from the increasing amount of students in the parking lot.

“Why would you sleep with a siren?” Was the first thing Louisa asked me as we walked towards the building.

“More like how?” Rebecca injected, wrinkling her nose.

Luke and I shared a look and chuckled.

“It’s a band!” We said in chorus and high-fived.

“I feel so left out,” Lilah complained. “There’s the two sisters and the two soulmates, and I’m just caught in the middle.”

“Aww, don’t worry we love you too,” Luke cooed, not noticing the blush that immediately coated Lilah’s cheeks.

Yeah, she definitely had something for him. I would so make this happen. I felt myself get excited at the idea until I realized I had other priorities. Like, say, making the most popular heart-breaker in all of junior fall in love with me. Cause that totally sounded possible… Great.

Jennifer chose that time to arrive hand in hand with her with Ethan, the love and cuteness oozing out of them almost too much to bear.

“Hey,” she said with a brilliant smile, and immediately started a conversation with Luke and Rebecca about their Spanish homework.

“I like your shirt,” Ethan told me with a smile.

I shot him a surprised look and he grinned.

“Yeah, I’m into that kind of music. How do you think I became friends with Luke? Sleeping With Sirens, Green Day, Blink 182, you name it.”

“All Time Low?” I asked in hope.

“Yes oh my god.”

“Pierce The Veil?”

“Marry me.”

“What?” Jennifer suddenly asked in fake outrage. “I’ve only known you for a day and you’re already stealing my boyfriend?”

“I would never,” I chuckled as Ethan fondly kissed the top of her head.

“Good. Cause I’m normally quite pacific, but I’d kick your ass.”

“Girl, you don’t know what you’re getting into,” Luke told her with a shake of his head. “Cami is very good at kicking asses. Seriously, she’s dangerous.”

I stuck out my tongue to him, but he didn’t have the time to respond with another childish gesture before the bell rang.

“Ugh…Spanish,” Jennifer groaned.

“Don’t you dare complain, I have German,” Louisa said.

“Should have taken French,” Lilah smirked. “We don’t do shit it’s so great.”

“More like boring,” I grumbled.

“The girl’s half French,” Luke filled the rest of them in.

“Ooh…Bonjour,” Louisa laughed.

“Bonjour,” I replied with a roll of my eyes.

“Guys we really need to go to class, the teacher will murder us,” Jennifer groaned. “You know how she is.”

“True,” Rebecca and Luke nodded, and the three of them disappeared up the stairs.

“Oh well, see you girls later,” Louisa said, and she left to German with Ethan, leaving Lilah and me to figure out where we had French.

Thankfully we got there before the teacher, and we hurried inside.


	5. Rebel Yell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As ususal, i appreciate any form for feedback, so don't hold back on those comments/kudos

CHAPTER 5: Rebel yell – Black Veil Brides

Calum’s POV:

“You know you want it,” I said with a crooked grin to Linda, who just rolled her eyes.

“Sure thing, babe,” she replied in sarcasm.

But I caught the flash of heat in her eyes as I smirked back. I couldn’t help but jubilate internally. I’d been on this one for at least three weeks, which was almost setting a record. Girls usually fell into my arms, but since it got boring sometimes, I liked to try and seduce the more difficult ones, who had all these moral principles about not having sex with someone you’re not in love with or haven’t been dating for a year or whatever other nonsense they believed in. Of course, it was just a matter of time before I got them. And now, three weeks after I set my goal on her, I had her.

“See you tonight,” I winked, making her blush slightly.

To Mike: She’s done for. You owe me ten bucks

From Mike: Linda? You go boy!

“Calum?” Grace called me, interrupting my text conversation with Mike.

I turned my head to see my girlfriend leaning against the wall of the corridor, a small frown on her face. I gave her a soft smile and skipped over to her.

“What’s wrong babe?” I asked her before pecking her lips.

“You didn’t answer my message yesterday,” she pointed out, raising a perfectly formed eyebrow.

“Yeah…I forgot?”

“Stop lying, you idiot. You just can’t be bothered to concentrate on anything else than what’s between your legs,” she sighed. “Anyway, I wanted to tell you that rumors are going around that you’ve been having sex with randoms in the bathroom.”

I opened my mouth to protest but she cut me off.

“You know I don’t care if it’s true. I just need you to put an end to the rumors. Continue or not, it’s your choice, but be more discreet.”

You see, Grace might be my girlfriend, but there was nothing real between us. Thing is, when you came from a healthy family like we both did, it looked good to have a beautiful, popular girlfriend to show off when you were at receptions, or just to your parents. It was more of an arrangement of some sort, and as long as we kept it somewhat discreet and were careful not to ruin our image of the perfect couple, we were both allowed to have some fun on the side. It was all about appearances. Which, of course, didn’t mean we didn’t have a nice hook-up here and there.

“Anyway, my parents are having a formal dinner soon and I need you there.”

I grumbled an agreement and she smiled sweetly at me before pulling me in for a small kiss and leaving for class. I sighed and headed to my first class, which happened to be French. Great.

Seeing Eric in the back of the classroom, I sat next to him but barely responded to his greeting, too annoyed by my talk with Grace. I fucking didn’t want to stop seeing girls at school… But I guessed I could try to tone it down a bit.

Eric started babbling about a girl he wanted to pick up at James’ next party and I zoned his talk out. I wasn’t in the mood. Instead I tried to look for a distraction in the room, and my gaze fell on the two girls sitting in front of us, recognizing one of them as the girl from yesterday’s English class. A smile tugged on my lips. I took my time looking at her, noticing how her hair was braided into an artfully messy African braid, with chestnut strands sticking out every now and then. I also appreciated the fact that she was wearing a crop-top, the small of her back bare and showing satin-like skin. I wanted to call her out and tease her like I’d done yesterday. If only I could remember her name…

At that moment, the teacher asked a question in French, and only silence answered her. I had to hide a smile at our total ignorance: none of us had understood the question. None of us cared, to be honest.

“Personne?” The teacher repeated. “Camille, qu’en dis-tu?” She said, looking at yesterday’s girl expectantly.

Oh, that’s right. Her name was Camille, to be shortened to Cami. I liked the fact that she insisted everyone called her that, for some reason. She knew what she wanted.

My eyes flew wide as sentences started flowing out of Cami’s mouth, a jumble of sounds and words that made absolutely no sense to me but apparently did to the teacher, who nodded along with a wide smile.

“Très bien,” she congratulated Cami, and then proceeded to write the vocabulary up on the blackboard.

The class didn’t move a muscle to copy it down though. We were too busy staring at Cami like she was some sort of alien.

“Hey, Cami, I didn’t know you were a French genius. That’s kinda hot.”

Both girls swiftly turned around, eyes wide, and I saw the slightest smile pulling up at Cami’s mouth before she smothered down her expression. I quickly shifted my gaze to her neighbor, noticing heavy brown hair, chocolate eyes and a nice figure, but as she was nowhere as good-looking as her friend, I zoomed back on Cami. She raised an eyebrow at me, wordlessly letting me know that she’d noticed my actions and was judging.

“What is it, French girl? Can’t stand me looking at others?”

Cami let out a derisive laugh.

“Oh god, I feel sorry for any girl who is ever possessive of you. She would die of heartbreak within an hour, considering how you get around.”

“You seem to know a lot about me for someone who only met me yesterday. Stalked me much?”

“Does your ego even have limits?” Cami scoffed. “It’s quite a turn-off.”

“I’ve been told otherwise,” I said cheekily, sending her a wink.

Her mouth fell open.

“Alright, I’m done with you.”

And with that, she turned back around to face the front of the class, her nameless friend following suit. Feeling Eric’s gaze on me, I tilted my head towards him, eyes challenging him.

“What is it?”

“Don’t you have enough girls as it is?”

“What the fuck do you mean?” I asked, dumbfounded.

“I mean aren’t there enough of girls who throw themselves at you? Do you really need to add on to the pile?”

I cracked a superior smirk.

“What, you jealous because of the Frenchie?”

Eric shrugged.

“She’s hot.”

I narrowed my eyes. Suddenly I felt possessive of this girl that I didn’t even know and who honestly meant no more to me than any of the other girls I flirted with. It was one thing for her to be sexy, but the fact that other guys wanted to go after her instantly made her more desirable. Now I felt like marking my territory by getting her myself.

“Yeah. And I saw her first, so back off. Get yourself your own Frenchie.”

“The Frenchie isn’t deaf, you know,” Cami said sharply without turning around.

“I hope not. Now that would be a turn-off.”

Cami was about to say something else, but she obviously got thrown off by my comment and faced me, frowning.

“Why?”

I smirked.

“Because I love for girls to hear how loud their moans are when I—”

“Okay I get it!” She interrupted me quickly. “Too much information.”

“Oh, really? You don’t strike me as the prude type.”

“I’m not,” Cami admitted carelessly. “But I’m not particularly interested in your R-rated descriptions of how you have sex.”

“Do you prefer a less theoretical approach?” I asked, grinning suggestively.

I knew perfectly well I’d pushed the limit here, so I was surprised when Cami suddenly started laughing. Not a snicker or a mocking laugh either, but a real, full-out one that lit up her beautiful features.

“You’re smooth, I gotta give you that,” she grinned, her tone slightly admiring. “But no thank you, I’ll pass.”

I was about to reply something clever when the teacher cleared her throat, staring at us pointedly.

“Sorry,” I said, still in awe of the unexpected reaction I’d gotten from Cami.

“Pardon?”

“What?”

“She wants you to say it in French, idiot,” Cami muttered in front of me.

Apparently her niceness to me had run up and she was back to being the annoyed Cami I knew. Oh well. I frowned and tried to remember what little French I knew, to no avail.

“Uh… Je suis pardonné?”

“Je suis désolé,” the teacher corrected sternly, making me roll my eyes.

I couldn’t wait for this class to be over. I needed to figure out some details to finish it up with Linda, and then have Mike help me choose my next ‘victim’. I just hoped Linda wouldn’t be too difficult to get rid of; she’d been enough trouble as it was. I thought about skipping the rest of the day to get it over with when I remembered something about a project in English class. Normally I wouldn’t care, but my partner was Cami, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit afraid of how she’d react if I skipped. She was part American part French…you never knew what to expect.


	6. If you can't hang

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMMENT AND KUDOS :3

CHAPTER 6: If you can’t hang – Sleeping with Sirens

Cami’s POV:

I’d just started answering Lilah’s pressing questions about what had happened in English class for Calum to flirt with me when I felt a pen poke my back. Having a very good idea of who it was, I squeezed my eyes shut, took a deep breath and finally turned around.

“What?”

“So, about that English project…the book we chose was what, Pride and Presumptions?”

“Pride and Prejudice,” I corrected, mentally face-palming at his lack of knowledge.

“Yeah, that. I was thinking, how about you just run me through the story? Cause like, me and books are not very good friends.”

Why wasn’t I surprised?

“Grammar and you either, apparently,” Lilah pointed out.

“What?”

“You say ‘books and me’ not ‘me and books’.”

Calum looked at her weirdly for a moment before turning his gaze back to me.

“So?”

“No,” I said shortly.

“Then I don’t have to come to English class.”

“What?”

“As long as I don’t know the story, I can’t help you. And I sure as hell am not buying that shit.”

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. It might be my plan to make him fall for me, and he might be my dream come true in terms of looks (which he seemed to be very aware of), but he got on my nerves like no one else.

“You’re really fucking annoying,” I smiled brightly.

“So I’ve been told,” he replied in the same tone.

We held each other’s eyes, the challenge clear. The intensity in his dark eyes quickly built up as I refused to look away, the heat in them making me swallow hard. Wow. I might just be up against something too strong for me. Just then, his gaze dropped to my shirt (guys…) and his mouth fell open.

“Do you know what this is?” He asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

“Excuse me. I don’t wear band shirts when I don’t listen to the band. That’s like, blasphemy.”

“You listen to Sleeping With Sirens!”

His face was a mixture of disbelief, amazement and a kind of happiness I associated with deep internal fangirling. Apparently I’d scored a point here. Yay. 

“Of course I do!”

“Oh my god did you hear their new album?”

“It’s on repeat,” I grinned. “Oh, my heart…”

We started talking about how the sound had changed since the new guitarist’s arrival when the bell rang. Flashing a smile at Calum, I turned back around and packed my stuff before leaving the classroom with Lilah.

Maybe he wasn’t all bad. Of course, it was only one band but…who would’ve thought someone like Calum had good music taste?

...

“I hate Math. I really fucking hate it,” I declared as I made my way to the nearby ice-booth along with Luke and Louisa after school.

Louisa whooped, giving me a high-five, while Luke just scoffed.

“You do know my mom’s a Math teacher, right?”

“Um, of course I don’t. I’ve only been your best friend since forever.”

“Keep the sass coming!” Louisa hollered.

“Do you even hear yourself speaking?” Luke said with a roll of his eyes.

“What’s gotten your panties in a twist? Did Lukey get a bad grade?” She mocked him.

He flipped her off, making me raise my eyebrows. Something was definitely up. Luke wasn’t exactly the moody type. Taking him by the shoulder, I gave him my best spill-now-or-no-ice-cream-for-you look. He pouted at me but – ignoring his puppy-dog eyes – I only made my look sterner until he gave in.

“Fine,” he sighed. “I kinda saw Rebecca talking to Michael.”

“Mike the asshole?” Louisa exclaimed. “What the fuck, why would she do that?”

“I don’t know. I’m just worried about her.”

I sent him a meaningful glance, knowing perfectly his bad mood was more than partly fueled by jealousy.

“I don’t understand,” Louisa kept fuming. “She told me she was over him. Of course I had my doubts, but come on! It’s been the whole summer. And it’s not like he’d ever take her back. I just don’t understand what he wants with her now.”

“Because he’s an asshole who thinks it’s just too tempting to play some more with her?” Luke asked bitterly.

“Tell me about it,” Louisa sighed. “And it doesn’t help that he’s smoking hot.”

“What?” Luke exclaimed in outrage.

“What? I can’t help it that I’ve got eyes.”

Luke face-palmed while I chuckled.

“Are you guys done?”

“You’re right,” Louisa cracked a grin. “You have a right to bitch too. So, what’s up?”

I made a face.

“Just when I thought Calum wasn’t that bad, he ditched English. We have a fucking project to work on!”

“Wait wait wait,” Louisa held a hand in front of me for effect. “Calum Hood?”

“Yeah.”

“The same guy I told you about yesterday?”

“Yeah.”

“The same guy who spends his time pretending to be royalty and being a rude dickhead to anyone who dares to talk to him?”

“Yeah.”

“The same guy who is constantly cheating on his picture-perfect cheerleader girlfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“The same guy who is best friends with Michael?”

“Yes for fuck’s sake! Him!”

“Are you telling me there is anything about him that’s ‘not that bad’? Apart from his looks?”

“He liked my shirt,” I shrugged.

“Well duh,” she eyed my crop-top, which exposed my flat stomach and emphasized my breasts.

“I mean the band, you idiot!” I laughed.

“Oh the weird thing where they sleep with sirens?”

“Yep.”

“Yeah, about that. I’m emotionally scarred!” She dramatically put a hand to her heart. “Now all I’m gonna think about when I watch The Little Mermaid is these men hooking up with her and her sisters!”

“What the fuck?” I wrinkled my nose at the same time as Luke barked out a laugh.

“You watch The Little Mermaid?” 

“Hey! It’s a good movie!”

“Um, agree to disagree,” I intervened. “I happen to know the original, Andersen version, and the Disney one is just shit compared to it.”

“Shhh… Are you two trying to ruin my childhood?”

By that time we’d arrived to the ice-cream booth, and the guy was staring at us like we were crazy (which we were). Once Louisa had rattled off her extremely complicated offer, Luke asked for a strawberry cone.

“Do you have frozen yogurts?” I asked sweetly, to which the guy nodded.

“What’s wrong with regular ice-cream?” Louisa cried, weirdly offended. “Are you trying to be fancy or something?”

“I just don’t like ice-cream.”

“What?” Louisa screeched as I shrugged.

“Can’t help it. Frozen yogurt is life, though.”

“Americans,” Louisa scoffed, shaking her head.

Our deliciousnesses in hand, we strolled around Sydney, the two of them showing me some of their favorite places (mostly restaurants and fastfood, with the occasional café).

“Wow, you guys are really into eating,” I laughed as Luke pointed at what had to be the hundredth Chinese restaurant.

“Food is love, food is life,” they both replied instantly and in total sync.

“Okay that’s scary.”

“What were you expecting?” Luke smirked. “I had to find people crazy enough to make up for your absence.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Louisa chuckled.

“And so you should,” I replied. “Anyone compared to me should feel immensely honored.”

“Oh I see how it is.”

“Yup!” I exclaimed, popping the ‘p’. “And now I’m really sorry but I have a crazy – and not the good kind – mom at home waiting for me. So I’ll see you guys tomorrow!”

“Wait,” Luke exclaimed. “I live literally two streets from you, I’ll walk with you. Bye, Louisa!”

Louisa waved at us before heading to the nearest bus station.

“Why wasn’t Rebecca with us?” I asked mindlessly.

“She said something about piano lessons,” Luke shrugged. “But she could be with Mike for all I know,” he added bitterly.

I felt a pang as I saw my friend’s sad frown, and was more determined than ever to go through with this plan we’d made up.

“Don’t worry,” I smiled wolfishly. “I’ll see to it that these boys get what they’re asking for.”


	7. My house

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave some feedback? pretty please? thx :3

CHAPTER 7: My House – PVRIS 

Cami’s POV:

I had my eyes locked on the target as I advanced on him. I wasn’t the only one; everyone in the hallway seemed to be staring at him and his Amazon-like girlfriend. But while they gave the hit-couple a wide berth, I, completely ignoring the golden rule of high school, made my way briskly over to them. When I came within reaching distance, I gave Calum a glare and shoved my beloved copy of Pride and Prejudice in his chest. He looked up in shock.

“Read this,” I said, my tone suffering no discussion. “And I swear to God, if it’s in any way harmed when I get it back—“ I let the sentence hang, the threat perfectly clear.

Not leaving him a chance to answer, I turned to the beauty at his side and flashed her a quick smile.

“Hi, I’m Cami.”

Then I turned on my heels and left.

...

“You’re awesome!” Lilah declared as we walked to our lockers before the first hour started.

“No, I’m pissed.”

“Well pissed-you is pretty badass.”

“I’d like to think that I’m always badass, but you know…” I cracked a smile, winking at her.

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, are you any good at Math?”

I stared at her.

“Math is the bane of my existence.”

“I was hoping you’d say that…”

“Why?”

“Because that makes Luke the only person in our group who’s decent at it!” She grinned.

“Are you kidding? He’s a fucking genius.”

“My point exactly!”

“You do know that if you wanted private lessons with him,” (insert extreme wiggling of eyebrows) “you could just have asked him. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t mind.”

“What are you on about?” She blushed. “I just need tutoring in Math!”

“Right. But it can only be with Luke…”

“Fine, I might or might not have a tiny little thing for him. Happy now?”

“Lilah, I’ve known you for two days and I already see you’re crushing. Don’t act like it’s a secret.”

“I’m that obvious?”

“Um yeah. But he’s pretty oblivious, so no worries.”

She groaned.

“But that means that all the girls know…”

“Well yeah. Unless they’re blind. You kinda blew your own cover with me, though,” I reminded her. “So what do you think will come of these ‘tutoring’ lessons?”

“Stop making it sound so dirty!” She yelled, laughing.

“What’s dirty?” Luke suddenly asked from behind us.

Lilah blushed like a tomato, while I smirked.

“Hemmings…of course you’d pop up the second the word ‘dirty’ is said.”

“Nah, otherwise I’d be hanging with the Michael crew,” he grimaced. “Though I am curious as to why you’d be talking dirty…” Suddenly a wicked glint lighted in his   
eyes. “Wait, are you having some sort of girl on girl action? Cause I wouldn’t mind seeing that,” he smirked.

“Luke, shut up. This is like incest,” I wrinkled my nose.

“Nah, Lilah totally makes up for it,” he winked.

“Stop trying to be seductive, you’re failing,” I deadpanned, making him pout adorably.

“But I’m really attractive,” he whined, looking at Lilah for support. “Right?”

Lilah, however, seemed incapable of speaking as her eyes widened impossibly.

“See?” I said triumphantly. “It’s really awkward now cause she doesn’t know how to break it to you that you’re ugly.”

“You’re mean,” Luke pouted again, sticking his lower lip out.

If only he’d seen the cooing expression in Lilah’s eyes, all doubts about his hotness would have been absolutely obliterated. But as it was, he didn’t notice it, keeping his gaze on me as he started asking me about the Biology homework.

“Hey, speaking of things that make me wanna throw up, do you still tutor in Math?”

“No one has asked me yet this year,” he shrugged, “but sure. It’s good money.”

Sending me a grateful look for the help, Lilah jumped in.

“About that… I kinda would like tutoring… I really suck and you’re the only one of our friends who’s any good at it,” she smiled sheepishly. “How much do you   
charge?”

“For you?” Luke asked incredulously. “Nothing! What kind of friend would I be if I wanted money in exchange of some help?” He smiled widely. “It’ll be fun! We can hang and stuff after doing some exercises!”

Lilah looked like it was early Christmas.

“Great! Yeah, that sounds amazing! You’re amazing!”

“I know, I know,” Luke bragged.

“Don’t let it go to your head,” I rolled my eyes. “You’re still the lesser badass.”

“What?”

Before Luke could express his outrage further, the bell rang and we suddenly remembered that we had class. Lilah and I hurried to French while Luke almost ran to his Spanish class, talking crazy about how his teacher was going to decapitate him.  
Wow. Spanish people are scary.

The teacher had already closed the door when we arrived to the classroom, and she looked at us expectantly as we stood in the doorway. I excused myself in French, which seemed to put her in a better mood as she simply waved us in.

“Très bien, très bien. Alright, class. What was the homework?”

Lilah and I walked to our spots in the back of the class, and I noticed that yes, Calum was sitting behind us next to a golden-haired guy – was it James? We had just taken out our stuff when I felt a pen poke my back.

I turned and faced the incredible hotness of Mr. Calum Hood.

“What is it?” 

“You know, you’re kinda scary when you want. Like earlier.”

“I know,” I replied evenly.

“You also completely ignored the fact that me and my girlfriend were having a moment.”

“I know.” I stifled a chuckle as I heard Lilah mutter ‘my girlfriend and me’ under her breath. Grammar freak. “I fail to see your point.”

“My point is I’m gonna read that book.”

“Yes you are.”

I was about to face the class again when James blurted out:

“Hey, I’m having a party soon. You in?”

“Sure,” I shrugged. “When?”

“On Saturday, it starts at nine.”

“I’ll be there,” I smiled, and finally turned my attention back to the class.

...

An hour of complete boredom later, I headed to my Arts class and Lilah poked my side.

“What?”

“What is it with you?” She asked with a grin. “You’re like a hotness magnet: you’re best friends with a totally drool-worthy guy, you’ve been here for two days and you’ve already caught Calum’s interest and been invited to one of James’ parties.”

“I thought everyone was invited to them?” I frowned.

“No, everyone goes to them. There’s a difference. It’s not often that people actually get invited.”

“Oh…cool. As for Calum, it’s on purpose,” I smirked.

“Um…you do know that he’s a player, right? You shouldn’t get your hopes up.”

“Don’t worry about me, I absolutely hate that type of guy. But it’s this sort of revenge thing Luke and I have decided to do. I’m gonna try to beat Calum at his own game.”

Lilah stared at me.

“You know when I said you shouldn’t exaggerate your badassness? Never mind that!” she exclaimed, then added as an afterthought. “But doesn’t he have a girlfriend?”

I shrugged with a devilish grin.

“He doesn’t care, why should I?”

And on that note, I made my way to the Arts classroom, where I spotted Rebecca, Jennifer and Ethan. Yay, I wasn’t alone!  
I sat next to Rebecca, who gave me a small smile before turning her attention back to the conversation she’d been having with the two lovebirds.

“And then he just smirked that insufferable smirk and left!”

“Becky, don’t even think about it,” Jennifer said vehemently. “He’s just gonna play you again.”

Rebecca let out a sigh.

“I know, it’s just…I can’t help but hope… Nah I’m just being stupid. It’s just—really not fair of him to do this to me.”

“When was Michael Clifford ever fair?” Ethan snorted. “Honestly, you’re better off without him. It was completely out of line the first time he played you, and if he tries anything again, he won’t be allowed to complain when Luke and I break his nose again.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes.

“You were stupid.”

“And we will be again, if he doesn’t back off!”

I smiled lightly at how defensive Ethan was being. It was really amazing to see how tight this group of friends was, and I was just a bit afraid I wouldn’t be able to   
integrate it. But my fears seemed unfounded as Jennifer decided to fill me in.

“Michael went back to Rebecca and asked her if she needed a ride to James’ party on Saturday.”

I groaned and turned to said girl.

“Tell me you said no.”

“I told him to go fuck himself, and he replied—what was it again? ‘Oh, but it’s much more fun if you’re doing that’. The nerve of the guy!”

I stared at her long and hard.

“You still like him.”

“No I don’t!” She protested.

“Yes you do!” Jennifer sided with me. “You’re just in denial. And you need to get over it quick, cause he’s trouble. All of those boys are.”

And thinking back to Calum’s mischievous eyes, I couldn’t help but agree. He was bad news.

...

I grabbed lunch with Jeremy as we shared the period before that. Since he was the one of the group I knew the less, I quizzed him about his life and interests for almost twenty minutes (he was quickly getting tired of me) until Luke sat down next to us.

“Brother from another mother!” I exclaimed happily.

“And another father,” he pointed out.

“Shut up, I was trying to sound cool,” I pouted.

“Well you failed,” he said flatly.

I looked at him weird.

“Why am I your friend again?”

“Because I’m absolutely awesome?” He offered, shrugging.

“You’re a pain in the ass,” I muttered.

“Sorry sweetheart, I don’t swing that way.”

“The fuck?” I exclaimed, bursting into laughter, while Jeremy sighed in mock-sadness.

“Such a shame.”

I scoffed, and immediately Luke narrowed his eyes at me.

“Are you implying that my being straight is not a terrible loss to the gay community?”

“Yep, pretty much.”

“Are you blind?”

“Sorry sweetheart,” I mocked him, “I just can’t see past your oversized ego.”

Luke made a face.

“That was way harsh.”

“Are you quoting Clueless?” I laughed again.

At his nod, I grinned brightly.

“That’s why you’re my friend! Now let me sit on your lap, this chair is really uncomfortable.”

Luke rolled his eyes but let me make myself comfortable on his lap, which immediately issued a new round of bickering as he insisted I was blocking his view.

“Of what?”

“Of the canteen, dumbass!”

“There’s nothing to see! All the hotties are behind us!”

“Are you talking about Michael’s friends?”

I shrugged noncommittally.

“Traitor!”

“What? I can’t help it that they’re attractive! Blame my hormones, not me! And if you’re looking for Rebecca, she left already.”

Luke slumped down on his chair and exchanged a saddened glance with Jeremy.

“She doesn’t like you back, mate,” Jeremy simply stated.

“Dude, you deserve better than someone who’s still hung up on her cheating, man-whore asshole of an ex,” I declared. “You need to get over this crush and find a new one.”

“Easy to say,” he grimaced.

“Not that difficult to do actually,” Jeremy shrugged. “Surely plenty of girls like you, just take your pick.”

“That sounds so wrong,” Luke sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Alright, enough of this. I wanna eat.”

He pushed me away from his lap, ignoring my protests, and turned his attention back to his plate. I exchanged a bemused look with Jeremy before we both continued eating. Luke might be a weirdo, but we had no right to judge. We were just as bad.


	8. Know your enemy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think of the story developpement and Calum and Cami and all!! I wanna know EVERYTHING

CHAPTER 8: Know Your Enemy – Green Day 

Calum’s POV:

Sitting down next to Mike, I smiled brilliantly at him.

“What’s got you so happy?” He asked, shaking his head at me. “Was Linda that good a lay?”

“Uh, not really actually. It was good, but you know, virgins and all…” I shrugged. “Anyway, I have great news: I have found my next project!”

“Your next project?” Mike repeated dumbly.

“Yeah, project, victim, prey, whatever. You know the American I sent you a picture of?”

“The one with blue eyes and really long legs?”

“Yeah, her.”

“Isn’t she the one who was totally rude to Grace and you earlier?”

“Exactly! You know I like them a bit on the crazy side.”

Mike raised his eyebrows.

“Isn’t she also the one who’s with Luke 24/7?”

“What?”

Mike didn’t answer, but pointed his chin at a table near the end of the cafeteria. I followed his gaze, and there she was, sitting on Luke’s lap. Luke, the fucking idiot who’d broken Mike’s nose over some stupid girl and then proceeded to try to beat me up. Needless say he’s the one who ended up in the hospital, but I got a lot of shit about it from my parents afterwards. It was safe to say we hated each other.

And the girl I’d chosen was sitting on his lap? That was just too much.

I felt a surge of anger and more than ever I was bent on making this girl, this Cami, mine. Then, when I was done with her, Luke could have her all he wanted. That is, if he was up for seconds.

I shared my thoughts with Mike and the biggest smile lit up on his face. I knew he’d like it. Ever since shit had gone down between the four of us – Luke, his friend Ethan, Mike and me – he’d been longing for a way to get back at the blond jerk. 

“I thought you didn’t wanna risk getting ogged again?” He asked me. “Because that’s gonna happen if we do a remake of Rebecca.”

“Nah…not the same type of girl. Cami isn’t going to go crying to her friends; she’s got her big-girl panties on. What’s gonna make him suffer is see her fall for his enemy,” I laughed. “Plus she’s totally worth a black eye.”

Mike raised an eyebrow.

“Really? Oh well, I’m not here to question your motives…as long as Luke gets what he deserves and you have some fun, I support this 100%.”

“Thank you babe! You know I can’t live without your support,” I joked, batting my eyelashes at him.

“Fuck off,” Mike laughed. “Anyway, this means I’ll have to lay off of Rebecca. I’d just started to rile her up again.”

“Why?”

“Cause I’m bored? But yours is a much better plan, and she bores me so… Who am I gonna get next?” He frowned.

“I don’t know, pick someone at Jame’s party? In the meantime get some from one of your groupies,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Hey James!” Mike exclaimed, catching the boy’s attention. “What time does the party start again?”

“Nine pm dude. Wanna sleep over?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“I’m up for that,” I interjected, knowing that coming smashed home was not a good idea for me.

James nodded at me, then frowned.

“By the way, who was that girl I invited in French? She was cool.”

I sighed in irritation. Really, another one?

“She’s called Cami,” I said shortly. “And back off.”

“Hey, I’m not the one with a girlfriend. Maybe you should back off, yeah?”

I glared at him fiercely and he raised his hands in surrender.

“I’m just saying, man. I wonder what Grace would think of this.”

I groaned and turned away from James, hating how he was right. Not that Grace would care about Cami herself, but she’d been a bit obnoxious this morning, and I’d promised I’d be lying low. Oh well… At least I hadn’t fucked anyone on the school grounds in a while… That counted as improvement, right?

...

When I got home that night, I sat on my bed and stared at the book for a while. Was I really gonna read this? And for what? Surely even a pretty girl like Cami wasn’t worth the trouble… Still, I found myself picking it up and opening it.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. The fuck was that supposed to mean? I blinked. Read it again. And again. And then I cracked a smile.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.

A few chapters in, I hated every character. Seriously, the mom and the younger siblings were stupid, the dad was a jerk, Jane and her beloved Bingley were boring and his sisters were bitches. As for Darcy, he was just a dick. Only Elizabeth was alright. Actually she kind of reminded me of Cami. Probably just because she was the one who insisted I read the book, but there was also something in her smart-ass replies and pride… I liked it.

...

Over the next few days, I didn’t see much of Cami. True to my word, I refused to show up in English before having finished the book, so I didn’t see her there. As for French, she seemed bent on ignoring me. There might be a link between the two facts. Whatever. Not like it pissed me off or anything. Nor did the fact that I noticed how often she hung out with the blond jerk and his crew. Nope, not at all.

To be honest, it was kinda worrying how much attention I paid to her. Everyone knew of the ‘ignoring’ technique to get someone’s attention, but it was slightly infuriating to see its effects when you were on the receiving side. This didn’t happen often with girls, and it only made me more determined to get her. And if that meant reading the goddamned book, so be it.

So that’s why at 6pm on a Friday night, instead of hanging out with my mates, I was locked in my room doing just that.

“Calum?” I heard my sister yell over Billie Joe’s voice.

I ignored her the few first times, as usual, but when she started rattling off threats if I didn’t get downstairs immediately, I groaned and turned off the music.

“What?” I shouted back, irritation clear in my voice.

“Get you ass down here, your girlfriend’s waiting for you.”

“Argh, fuck,” I muttered.

I’d completely forgotten about the formal dinner her parents were having. I hurried down the stairs and almost ran into Grace, who simply rolled her eyes at me. One   
look at my panic-stricken face and she gave a sigh.

“I knew you’d forget, which is why I’m here early. Come on big boy, let’s get you dressed.”

...

Two hours later we were ready in front of her parents’ house. We both looked extremely fancy, Grace in her salmon cocktail dress and I in my black bowtie suit. My hair was gelled back and I was holding a bucket of pink roses to give to her mother. The minute Grace rung the bell, the door opened to reveal her mom in a midnight blue dress.

“Good night Mrs. Hales,” I smiled at her, my voice the epitome of politeness as I handed her the bouquet. “You look absolutely stunning.”

“Oh, thank you darling. And I’ve told you a hundred times to call Sarah,” she scolded me softly before stepping away from the threshold, letting us in.

“I swear it’s like you flip a switch,” Grace muttered as we walked inside the house.

“Maybe I do,” I said, throwing her a smile before turning my attention back to the host.

“This is beautiful,” I commented as I took in the efforts that had been made to make the grand foyer even more fancy.

“Aren’t you full of compliments tonight?” She chuckled. “Go on in, most of the guests will be here shortly,” she said, showing us to the living room.

Sitting down on the white leather couch next to Grace, I let out a soft sigh. I was in for another night of polite conversation and fake smiles and perfect behavior. Yuck. As if sensing my annoyance, Grace discreetly placed her hand on my thigh. Raising my eyebrows, I gave her a look, and she smiled cheekily in response.  
‘Later’ she mouthed, and instantly the night looked much more interesting.


	9. Psycho killer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave feedback!! <3

CHAPTER 9: Psycho Killer – Talking Heads

Cami’s POV:

Friday night was shopping night, and the five of us girls – Lilah, Louisa, Rebecca, Jennifer and me – met up at the mall a few hours after class. While Lilah and Louisa poked fun at Jennifer by congratulating her for not bringing her boyfriend, Rebecca dragged me to her favorite store.

“This place has the cutest shit I swear!” She exclaimed.

Since I’d told her that I needed to buy a ton of new clothes, because mine weren’t exactly adapted to the Australian weather, she had been head over heels. Apparently it wasn’t every day she had an opportunity to help a friend completely refurnish her wardrobe. My numerous rejections of her ideas and protesting that I was not the flower and skirts kind of girl didn’t seem to dampen her enthusiasm.

“I had such high hopes for you,” she mock-sighed before sending me a wink. “Alright, more of a challenge then. Let’s go on a ‘what-shall-please-miss-Cam?’ scavenger hunt!”

She enrolled the other girls, and soon I was sent to the changing-rooms with more than twenty items to try. And more on the way. After almost three hours of shopping, I had purchased five shorts, around ten tanks, two crop-tops and one skirt (Rebecca had insisted). Once I deemed myself satisfied, we went to look for dresses for tomorrow’s party.

“I already have a dress,” Jenifer mused, “but I need shoes to go with.”

“What color?” Rebecca asked.

“It’s light blue with a golden belt so I don’t know…Gold?”

“Or you could break the ensemble by going with a total different color,” Louisa pointed out. “Like red or some shit.”

Rebecca and Jennifer both winced at the picture, while I exchanged a look with Lilah. Could be nice. But apparently both Jennifer and Rebecca were more into classic, because they started looking at golden pumps. Oh well. I turned to Louisa.

“How come you and your sister are so different?”

She shrugged and sent me a mischievous smile.

“I’d like to say I soaked up all of the awesomeness in our mom’s womb, but she’s the older one, so I’ll just go with my dad’s way cooler.”

“Do you both live with your parents?”

“Yeah. She visits her dad a weekend per month though. He’s alright I guess, but he left mom as soon as he found out that she was pregnant with Becky, which sucks. He wasn’t ready for that apparently. I was also an accident,” she added with a chuckle, “but my dad had the balls to stick around, so now we’re one big happy family.”

The sarcasm was barely noticeable as she looked at her older sister, her gaze full of love.

“Wow,” Lilah deadpanned. “Almost makes me wish I had siblings. But then again not. I hear they’re a pain,” she grinned.

“So they are,” I agreed easily. “Especially brothers. Ugh. I’m so happy Sam finally grew out of his pre-teen phase. Now that was horrible.”

“Sam?” Lilah repeated, incredulous. “You have a younger brother called Sam?”

“Um, yes?”

“I mean, Supernatural much?”

“Oh my god, not you too.”

Lilah was about to protest when Louisa cut in with a grin.

“Hey so, that brother of yours, how old is he?”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“He’s your age, why?”

“Nothing,” she sing-songed, making me roll my eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, you have my blessing.”

Now it was Louisa’s turn to protest, but I just ignored her as I started examining the racks of dresses exposed in the shop. I needed something flashy, provocative, but not downright slutty. Something that would catch Calum’s attention without screaming ‘free sex’. Of course, I was still mad at him for continually ditching English and thus leaving our project hanging, but part of the whole ignoring deal was also for the plan. What better way to infuriate a player like him than to be hot-and-cold with him? If all went well, it would mess with his head and exacerbate his interest in me. Maybe enough that he’d consider me a potential prey. And that would be playing right into my hands.

I didn’t find love immediately, so instead I helped Lilah choose between two almost identical dresses while also attempting to keep Louisa from total disaster as she committed fashion faux-pas on fashion faux-pas. Thankfully her sister came back from the shoe-hunt and took matters in her own hands, leaving me to find my outfit. Lilah had gone to look for accessories to compliment the pretty little blue dress she had chosen, but Jennifer offered me her help, which I gladly accepted. 

Fifteen minutes later, I’d selected three possible outfits and had no idea which one to go for, especially after the girls had all declared I looked impossibly hot in all of them (aww thanks gals). It ended with Louisa remarking that considering the number of parties James threw, they could all be useful, and at the general agreement, I bought them all. The two sisters had chosen the same kind of beautiful bustier dress whose material flowed around the legs, but where Rebecca’s was a soft pink, Louisa had opted for a blinding yellow. Strangely, it suited her complexion. I guessed if you were pretty enough, you could look good in anything.

When we got back from the mall, I offered for the girls to stay at my place, but only Lilah could. Jennifer had planned to sleep at her boyfriend’s (cue to exaggerated winking on our part and Louisa yelling ‘Wear a condom! Safety first!’), and apparently Rebecca and Louisa had planned a family movie night.

I was secretly happy about this since I’d felt myself getting closer to Lilah than the other girls, and I wanted nothing more than to strengthen that bond. And what better for that than a good sleepover? 

I gave her directions to my place as we drove in her green car. It was around 8pm when we arrived, and it seemed my whole family was already home.

“I’m home!” I yelled as I led Lilah through the entrance and into the living-room.

Only Sam was there and he didn’t move a muscle, too absorbed in his video game to care.

“I have a friend sleeping over,” I insisted.

“Do I look like I give a flying shit?”

“Dude, my friend is here. Now.”

Sam immediately let go of the controller and his widened eyes fell on Lilah.

“Oh. Um, sorry about that,” he said sheepishly.

“Hmm, I see what you mean about brothers,” she told me with a grin.

“What have you been saying?” Sam instantly asked in a threatening voice, locking eyes with me.

“Oh, nothing. Just that you’re a constant pain in my ass whose only interest in life is his video games and his hair.”

“You’re gonna pay for that,” he promised in a snarl and set after me.

Letting out a yelp, I started to run around while he chased me, causing Lilah to crack up.

“Add ‘dangerous’ to the list!” I shouted.

“Guys!” My mom suddenly yelled as she appeared into the living-room. “Simmer down!” Then she turned to look at Lilah in confusion. “You’re not my kid.”

“No I’m not,” Lilah confirmed with a grin. “I’m a friend of Cami’s.”

My mom fake-gasped.

“Cami? You have friends?”

“Mom!”

“I’m so proud of you darling!”

“Cut it out!”

She laughed out loud and I was just about to chuck a cushion at her face when Sam tackled me from behind.

“I’m going to end you,” he exclaimed and started to tickle my sides.

“No! No!” I screamed, struggling and failing to get away. “Lilah! Help me godammit, you poor excuse for a friend!”

“Oh so you don’t have a friend,” my mom noted.

“Quit being a smartass and help me!”

“I think not,” Lilah said, earning herself a high-five from my mom.

By that time tears were streaming down my face and my sides hurt from laughing.

“Stop trying to earn my mom’s approval and help me,” I choked out, kicking away at my brother. “How are you so heavy, Sam?”

Finally I managed to escape my brother’s hold (on my own), and stood up, glowering at Lilah and my mom.

“You two do not deserve my love.”

“Aww, you’re such a cutie,” my brother drawled, ruffling my hair.

“Be ready to be sorry,” I grinned at him evilly.

“What? What are you gonna do?”

“Why should I tell you?” I shrugged. “After all, revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Having succeeded in lighting a flare of panic in his eyes, I took hold of Lilah’s hand and dragged her up the stairs to my room.

“This is amazing,” she breathed as she took in the place.

“I know right? It was Luke’s idea to install a little kitchen up here, so it’s like a real apartment now.”

“Does he come here often?” She asked, her nonchalant tone not very convincing.

“Well it’s only been a few days but yeah, we’re often at each other’s places.” I said as I sat down on my very comfortable bed. “But I’ve told you before, there’s absolutely nothing romantic between the two of us. We’re like brothers and sisters, you know. We met in beginning of primary, he’d just moved to America. We clicked instantly, and stayed best friends even after he moved back here. But that’s it, we’re just friends.”

“Promise?”

“Yep. Plus I totally ship the two of you!”

“But he likes Rebecca,” she grimaced. “I think anyway.”

“Meh, it’s just a harmless crush. He needs someone who’s not hung up on a jackass like Mike. I’ll help you win him over!”

She blushed slightly.

“Really?”

“Yeah, you’d be so cute together. He deserves someone like you. And if he doesn’t like you by the end of the month, I’m disowning him as my best friend.”

She gasped.

“You wouldn’t!”

“I would,” I nodded gravely. “That’s how much I ship this thing.”

“Okay stop with the mooshy-mooshy stuff, you’re gonna make me cry,” she joked.

“Alright, alright,” I grinned.

Once we’d stored away all the clothes I’d bought today, we changed into our PJs (I lent her one) and stumbled downstairs to grab something to eat.

“Hey dad!” I chirped happily as I saw him bent over the stove. “Watcha cooking?”

“Veggie lasagna. Sound good?”

I turned to Lilah questioningly, and she nodded eagerly back.

“Who’s vegetarian?” She asked.

“My dad and I, but since he’s always the one cooking, we end up only eating vegetarian stuff,” I chuckled.

“Cool. No one cooks at my place. My parents both suck, and I’m worse.”

I nodded gravely.

“I feel you sister.”

My mom made us set the table and we enrolled my brother, who grumbled irritably but complied. The dinner itself turned into a contest of who could be the most embarrassing. Between my dad’s jokes, my mom’s failing sass, my brother’s rudeness and my own clumsiness, it was a tight match. In the end Lilah won as she started laughing to hard she spit some Coke out of her nostrils.

“What the actual fuck?” I laughed.

“Cami, language!” My mom yelled.

“What the actual baboon?”

“Cami, braincells!” My brothers said in a perfect imitation of my mom.

This earned him a slap on the side of the head from her as well as a kick in the shin from me. It goes without saying he jumped up from his chair with an over-dramatic howl of pain. Meanwhile Lilah was still choking, and my dad was calmly eating his lasagna.  
What can I say? It was a daily occurrence.


	10. Roger rabbit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you know the drill! Comments and kudos are much appreciated XD

CHAPTER 10: Roger Rabbit – Sleeping with Sirens

Cami’s POV:

After we were done making complete fools of ourselves, Lilah and I decided to watch a movie.

“So what kind of movie are you into?” I asked her.

“Mostly action and fantasy. Rom-com is just ridiculous, you know?”

I nodded strongly.

“I agree. Although I must admit some chickflicks are great. It’s refreshing to watch something stupid, distracts me from my own overbearing intelligence and awesomeness.”

“Wow.”

“My words exactly.”

“You are one mouthful, Cami,” Lilah chuckled before settling on the bed beside me. “What do you wanna watch?”

“I dunno. Let’s go with something both action and fem power. I feel like fem powering tonight, I still need to plan out my revenge on little bro.”

“Alright then! I have the perfect movie! Salt.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It’s amazing.”

“Who’s playing?”

“Angelina Jolie. She’s kickass.”

“True true. Okay, I’m down for some breathtaking, hot action!”

“Do you even know how bad that sounded?” Lilah asked, wrinkling her nose.

“Probably really bad,” I admitted carelessly. “Let’s do this!”

Lilah merely shook her head and went on her Netflix to start the movie. We huddled close on the bed, pulling the covers up to our faces as the fun began.

“Oh my god. I wanna be Angelina Jolie when I grow up,” I said. “She’s so badass.”

“I told you,” Lilah grinned. “It’s still a stupid movie though. Like, no depth of character.”

“Shhh…don’t ruin it.”

By the time the movie was over, we were both tired to the bone and neither of us wanted to get out of bed to turn off the lights.

“It’s your house,” Lilah argued.

“I fed you!”

“You’re the host!”

“I said I’d help you with Luke!”

“I said I’d help you with Calum!”

“You did?”

“No, but I’m telling you now.”

“Okay, fine, you win,” I huffed, before taking a deep breath and getting up. I put the laptop away and shuffled to the door to shut the lights. “There we go. We should have shut these before and used the lamp near the bed.”

“Hmpf,” was the only answer I got.

Sighing, I jumped back on the bed and took my usual place on the right side. Immediately Lilah got closer to me and extended her arms.

“Cuddling?”

“Yes.”

“I hope you’re also into late night confessions,” Lilah spoke up.

“I’m a girl. That ought to be answer enough.”

“True,” she chuckled. “Alright, twenty questions?”

“You start.”

“What’s your favorite color?”

“That’s a shit question darling. Pick something better.”

“Do you miss America?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.”

“Expand.”

“Okay, so, I thought I’d miss it a lot more than I ended up doing. Like, I left some good friend back there, but we haven’t really been speaking since then. I’m moving on way easier than I thought I would. And it’s not only because of Luke, it’s also you and the girls. You’re great. Also the weather.”

“Haha yeah, it’s pretty amazing. Alright, your turn.”

“Hmmm…are you a virgin?”

“What the hell? That’s like, a question 17 or something!”

“Meh. I’m not patient.”

“I can tell. And no, I’m not a virgin. Are you?”

“Nope. How old?”

“Fift—Look, can we just drop the whole game thing and just tell each other?”

“Oh my god yes please. I hate that game.”

Lilah laughed before hitting my arm lightly.

“Why didn’t you say so before, stupid. Okay, so I used to go out with this guy Jamie. I’d had a crush on him since fifth grade, so when he asked me out I was overjoyed. We started dating in the beginning of freshman year and continued until sophomore. By then we were becoming less and less close. You know that moment when the frenzy of the beginning wears away? Well, it didn’t go well. I started noticing his flaws, and it grated on my nerves and such. He was also willing to um…try certain things that I wasn’t comfortable with. So I ended up breaking up with him. He went right on to another girl, so it didn’t really matter. I wish him all the best and hope he’s able to live his kinks to the full,” she grinned.

“Wow. Okay…so you broke up in what? April?”

“End of February actually. And that’s when I started to notice Luke. He’d been sort of friends with us since he moved here in the beginning of the year, but I didn’t see much of him because I wasn’t that close to the girls. I guess I was that person who spends all her time with her boyfriend. But once I really got over him, I hung out more with the sisters and the lovebirds.”

“What about Jeremy?”

“I don’t know. I never even knew he existed until Luke showed up with him one day at our table. He’s been hanging with us ever since. I think he was kind of a loner.”

“He seems a bit reserved yeah. It’s cool of Luke to have gotten him out his hole. Remind me to give him a cookie for that.”

“Haha will do! So what about you? What’s your history with boys?”

“It’s less interesting. I’ve never been in love. In the end of eighth grade, this guy asked me out. Since we were really good friends, I thought I’d give it a try. Who knew? Maybe I’d fall for him. Plus he was quite good-looking, so I thought it was a win-win. We went out for like six months, and we had all firsts together. First date, first kiss, first relationship, first sex…it would’ve been romantic, if only I’d had feelings for him. But I didn’t. So after half a year of dating, I dumped him. From then on the relationships I had never lasted more than two weeks. I kept looking for someone who would mean something more than just a friend to me. But it didn’t happen, and I convinced myself I didn’t need a relationship. So I just stopped trying…”

Lilah sighed.

“I feel you.”

“So wait. If you broke up with Jamie in February, does that mean you haven’t gotten laid in all that time?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Oh.”

“What, do you mean you’ve had sex since your relationship with the guy? Whose name you forgot to mention, by the way.”

“It wasn’t Luke.”

“I wasn’t implying it was!”

“No, but you were wondering. His name was Paul, and he was Luke’s best guy friend. I think they’re still in contact… With me it was a bit awkward though.”

“No wonder,” Lilah snorted.

“True. And, to answer your question, yeah I did. Actually the reason those two-week flings didn’t work out is because they were mostly physical.”

“No judging, but if you’ve had these kinds of relationships…then why do you hate guys like Michael and Calum? Isn’t it the same?”

“No! See, there’s a difference. In my case, the boy and I both knew what we wanted: meaningless sex. Calum seduces the girl, he makes her think that he cares about her, and then he screws her over. Literally.”

“Oh okay I get it. I think. I’m a bit too innocent for that kind of stuff,” Lilah laughed.

“I’m sure you are, little angel. I’ll hook you up with Luke, though. Heard he had some moves,” I winked.

“Cami!” She yelled, making me laugh more.

“I’m kidding! I’m kidding! He’s not a virgin either, though. Just saying.”

“How many girlfriends has he had?” She asked curiously.

“Two I think. His first relationship lasted a few months before she broke up for whatever reason. Then he was with this girl in all of ninth grade. He was head over heels for her, and she cheated on him.”

“Jesus. No wonder he’s so mad at players like Michael and his crew.”

“Yeah, she really messed him up bad. That’s why it was good for him to move back to Australia. It gave him some space, even though he obviously missed his kickass best friend.”

“Obviously.”

“Ugh anyway, enough talking about Luke. What about the other girls?”

“Um let’s see… Ethan and Jennifer are soon to celebrate their two-year anniversary, and it’s just ponies and rainbows.”

“Ew.”

“Nah, we’re just jealous. Mike was Rebecca’s first boyfriend, and he totally used her and broke her heart, so there’s that. And Louisa…well, I’m not sure. I think she must have had a boyfriend at some point, but she’s surprisingly not very open about it.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Hey, uh…do you wanna just sleep now?”

“Sure,” I answered.

Not even five minutes later, darkness engulfed me and pulled me under.

...

I was woken up by someone shaking me roughly.

“Cami!” Lilah whisper-yelled.

I groaned and refused to open my eyes, but she increased her efforts until I couldn’t ignore her. Cusswords spilled from my mouth as I, still half-unconscious, sat up groggily.

“You seriously need to wash your mouth, girl! With soap.”

My response is not to be put into words.

“Make that bleach,” she winced. 

With a little more coercing, she finally managed to get me to fully wake up. Which didn’t mean I was in a good mood.

“What?” I snapped.

“Wow, dangerous.” She deadpanned. “Well, I have an amazing idea for your prank on your brother.” 

Instantly I brightened.

“Really? What?”

“There’s the Cami I know! Are you ready to get decapitated by your brother when he finds out?”

“You mean am I ready to die of laughter when I watch it happen? Spill.”

“You’re his sister, right? So, does he have a secret phobia?”

“Yes…he’s afraid of clowns.”

She gives me a look.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah…why?”

“Nevermind, it’s just…coincidences.”

“Are you talking about Supernatural again?” I groaned.

“Maybe!” She laughed. “Anyway, do you by any chance know a girl he likes?”

“Not here, but back in Washington he had this thing with a girl.”

“Okay, so you place this little box or whatever with a clown in it and write her name on it, as if she’d sent him a gift or something. And when he opens it, bam!”

“That’s amazing!” I breathed. “I can buy one of those Jack-in-a-box kind of things! He’ll absolutely hate it! Oh my god let’s go now!”

In my enthusiasm, I almost forgot to get dressed before running out of the room. Lilah exclaimed and grabbed my arm, tugging me back into my bedroom. I lent her one of my tops and she wore her shorts from yesterday, and I dressed similarly. Even early in the morning (9am I think!), it was warm and sunny. I sent out a quick text to my mom, not especially wanting to wake her up, and then we ventured outside. Lilah took me to the nearest shop, which happened to be only a few streets down, and within 15 minutes, we had what we needed. Still, to be believable, we went to the bakery and bought breakfast for everyone.

“The bread is so much better in France,” I sighed as we left the bakery.

“Baguettes, right?”

“Your accent is just awful,” I chuckled. “But yeah. I don’t wanna be stereotypical or anything, but it’s the best thing in this world. It’s literally what I miss the most about France.”

“You used to live there?”

“I did until I was about eight, and we go there every summer.” I frowned. “Winter? I’m so confused about seasons here. Like, Christmas is during the summer? How fucked up is that?”

“It’s great!” Lilah defended her country vehemently. “We go on the beach and have a barbecue and watch the sun set.”

“Yeah okay but…what about the Christmas tree? Santa Claus’ sled? The snowmen? The fucking snowball fights? I mean, it’s sad that you don’t get to do that. That’s the Christmas spirit.”

“I’ve never seen snow,” Lilah remarked.

I stared at her.

“Oh.”

She shrugged.

“Don’t feel so sorry for me. I’m pretty sure you’ve never seen a venomous snake under your bed, so there.”

“Oh my god what is this place,” I moaned. “They’re all completely mental.”

“Well, we do come from criminals,” Lilah laughed. “That’s why I’m so good at pranking.”

I couldn’t but agree to that, and we hurried home. Sam had just gotten out of bed when we arrived, and he looked at me weird.

“How the hell are you up so early?”

“I have an Australian friend. She’s weird.” The comment earned an elbow in the ribs and I winced. “Anyway, we bought breakfast.”

We put the bread on the table, and I watched a huge smile form at his lips as he took in the food. Boys…

“Oh, by the way, I got the post, and I’m guessing this is for you”, I told him, handing him the box, on which there was written ‘I miss you – Stephani’ in elegant handwriting (Lilah’s work, not mine).

He started and stared at it for a bit before narrowing his eyes at me.

“You didn’t open it, did you?”

“Do you honestly think I want to know what you two send each other?” I grimaced. “What if it was a condom or something?”

“It’s not like that between us!”

“I can never know with you,” I said.

Shrugging, he took the box almost nonchalantly, but I didn’t mistake the avid look in his eyes. As he disappeared in his room with it, I exchanged an excited look with Lilah. Half a minute later, a girlish, bloodcurdling scream came from his room, and I exploded into laughter. His door opened with a bang and he ran down the stairs to me, his expression absolutely murderous.

“Sounds like you’re killing a pig in here,” my dad commented as he walked down the stairs behind my brother.

I would’ve laughed at the comment if it wasn’t for Sam, who grabbed me by the collar and pushed me into the wall.

“You. Are. So. Dead.”

“I said I’d get revenge,” I grinned cockily.

“Sam, let go of your sister,” my dad said blandly, looking through what we had bought. “Ooh, I like that cereally stuff.”

As per usual, Sam ignored him and glowered at me, making me laugh.

“What? Was wittle Sammy scared of the big bad clown?” I taunted.

He let out a furious growl just as my mom walked in.

“Sam, let go of your sister. It was harsh, but you deserved it for what you did yesterday. You know she hates being tickled. Now, let’s eat.”

We sat around the table and had breakfast, all animosity forgotten (or almost) as Sam (sorta) acknowledged that it had been his turn. Still, I decided to watch my back. Sometimes, kids, people say they’ve forgiven you but it’s not true. Yes, they lie. Shocking, I know.

...

Lilah and I spent the day in my room, watching some more Netflix and looking at what homework we had in common. I told her more about my plan for Calum, and she gave me a few very interesting ideas.  
When the time to get ready for James’ party came, we helped each other with the make-up and hair. I ended up going in a pair of high-waisted black shorts, a black crop-top that said ‘Catch me if you can’ and fishnets, along with combat boots. Yes, I rocked the badass look today. I’d completed it with some black kohl eyeliner and heavy mascara, letting my hair loose.  
Next to me, Lilah looked like an angel in her light blue dress with a silver sash, heart necklace and simple black heels. I’d somehow managed to twist her hair in a complicated bun, with a few loose curls here and there. The smoky eyes and silver eyeshadow complimented her outfit perfectly. Looking at each other in the mirror, we nodded in synchronization. Yes, we were ready.

Still, just to be sure, I sent a selfie of us both to Luke for approval. His response was quick.

From Luke: You look dressed to kill. Remind me not to ever get u mad

From Luke: btw since when is L so pretty?

From Luke: Don’t show her that message!!!

I let out a delighted laugh, catching Lilah’s attention.

“What?” 

“Luke approves your outfit.”

She blushed lightly, a grin lighting up her features.

“Really?”

“Yup! He thinks you’re pretty.”

The look on Lilah’s face was reason enough to disobey my best friend. Besides, he’d only told me not to show her the text, he didn’t exactly say anything about telling her its contents. No shame.

“Should we pick him up?” Lilah asked me.

“I’ll ask him.”

As it was, Luke was happy with the offer, and just a few minutes later we were on the go.


	11. I feel like dancin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooo I am back with updates!! I might double-update. Or triple. Or more. *crack devilish grin* the possibilities are endless

CHAPTER 11: I feel like dancin’ – All Time Low

Cami’s POV:

Fifteen minutes later, we were all in Lilah’s green car, on our way to the party. The two had been to enough of them to know the way to James’ house by heart. I kinda wondered what his parents did for a living. Were they ever at home?

Even though it was only 8h30 when we arrived, the party was already in full swing. The music was cranked up so high it was a wonder I wasn’t deaf yet. Empty cups of beer were littered all over the beautiful, green garden. And the people. They were everywhere; talking, singing, dancing, laughing, kissing, grinding… A real party. We slowly made our way to the house, trying to look for the rest of my friends. As soon as he saw the mass of people inside, Luke took hold of my hand, probably afraid he’d lose me in the crowd. Smart move, since I was immediately pulled to the side by someone who looked suspiciously like Jeremy.

“Hey, want some beer?” He slurred, obviously completely out of it.

I couldn’t help cracking a grin at the sight.

“Nah, I’m fine. Thanks for the offer though, Jer.”

“I like it when you call me Jer,” he nodded. “You’re nice.” He then pointed obnoxiously to Luke, who was standing right next to me. “I know you! You’re Luke!”

“That I am,” Luke agreed with a chuckle.

“You’re nice too. And I need to throw up,” he added as an afterthought.

Luke and I exchanged a panicked glance as he started wobbling towards the door.

“I’ll take care of him,” Luke assured me. “Try to find the girls.”

I turned back to the crowd and let out a defeated sigh. Where had Lilah gone? I started cutting through the crowd, looking for food. I wasn’t exactly known for handling my liquor well, so I wouldn’t tempt fate by drinking on an empty stomach.

By some random stroke of luck, I found Louisa at the table with pizza bites.

“Heyo, what’s up?” She asked with a shit-eating grin.

“Nothing much, I was just looking for you guys. Did you see the others?”

“Well I came here with my sister, but she disappeared with this cute guy on the dancefloor, and I haven’t seen Ethan and Jenifer yet, but they’re probably somewhere sucking their faces off. What about Lilah and Luke? Weren’t you with them?”

“Um yeah, but I kinda lost Lilah? And Luke went outside to help Jeremy not throw up on himself.”

Louisa grimaced.

“Oh.”

“Yeah… So, this is cool.”

“It’s cooler when there’s less people smothering you. In an hour or so it’ll clear out, cause the unidentified people who just got here for the free alcohol will be forced to leave.”

“What? How?”

“Um yeah, James has this really muscular guy throw out everyone who looks on the way to be passed out. And then the real fun begins.”

“The real fun?” I echoed.

“Yeah. With better alcohol, more music and more space to actually dance. In the meantime, do like me: eat.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

So I joined her in her dinner while we laughed at the people making fools of themselves everywhere. Just like she’d said, an hour later, the place started to clear out, and eventually there were only fifty to seventy people at the party. By then we’d been joined by both Lilah, Ethan and Jenifer. Luke had sent me a text saying he’d driven Jeremy home and was on his way back, so he’d be here any minute.

I leaned against a wall and watched as a few guys started putting out tables in the room next to ours, and I definitely spotted bottles of tequila. Hmm, body shots? That sounded good. Just then, someone grabbed me by the arm, and I turned to see Lilah tug me towards the dancefloor, a bottle of vodka in her hand.

“Come on, let’s have fun!”

And we did. We danced like crazy people on the middle of the room, taking swigs of the bottle and laughing madly. I let the music and the alcohol take over, and just stopped thinking. It was great, and Lilah seemed to agree as she spun around in circles again and again, laughing out loud. As a song I liked came on, I moved my hips along and danced like nothing else mattered.

Of course, a guy had to ruin the moment by trying to groping my ass. I raised my middle finger at him and a few other people shoved him away from me. Then I felt one of them take hold of my waist, and I raised my head to see James, the host of the party. He smiled at me crookedly.

“You’ve got some moves,” he complimented.

“Thank you,” I grinned. “The alcohol helps.”

“Wanna dance with me?” He asked, a light smirk at his lips.

“Nope.”

“Why not? It’s just a dance.”

I rolled my eyes, still smiling.

“It’s never ‘just a dance’ with your type. And I’m not in the mood tonight.”

His grin widened.

“But you might be another time?”

“I like to keep my possibilities open,” I shrugged. “Anything can happen.”

“I like you,” he chuckled. “Come on, let’s dance then. Just dance, I promise.”

Feeling his sincerity, I nodded and let him guide me back to the middle of the dancefloor. He took hold of my hips from behind me and I swayed side to side to the music, occasionally slightly grinding on him. As we ‘danced’, I observed Rebecca and Luke dancing together, while Lilah and Louisa were still being crazy on the side. I noticed Jenifer and Ethan had disappeared again. Oh well. Then I leaned my head back against James’ shoulder, closed my eyes and just enjoyed the moment.

After a while, I tapped on his hand to catch his attention and motioned to the other room, where people were doing body shots. He nodded and let go of me. I cut through the dancing crowd and joined the sexily-drinking-from-other-people’s-bodies one. As I waited for my turn, I picked up an unopened bottle of beer from one of the empty tables and sipped at it. It was surprisingly strong for a beer, and I could feel myself get slightly heady from all the alcohol.

Finally there was a space at one of the tables, and I approached it to see a shirtless boy smiling at me with a piece of lime in his mouth. Another guy hurriedly poured a shot of tequila and placed it on his chest, and then everyone was looking at me expectantly. Smiling mischievously, I placed a hand next to his head as I dipped down and slowly licked the salt from his stomach, feeling his muscles tense under my tongue. Picking up the shotglass between my teeth, I threw my head backwards and swallowed it in a gulp. Then, sending another smile to the lying boy, I gently took the lime from between his lips and stood back up. I moved away to let the next person have their turn, and suddenly an idea struck me. I turned to the guy handing out the shots.

“I want to do it,” I grinned.

He sent me surprised glance but nodded and drew me to a table. I lay on it and felt him put salt on my stomach, which was conveniently bare because of my crop-top, and a piece of lime in my mouth.

“Alright everyone!” He yelled. “Fresh meat! Female meat!”

Immediately a crowd formed over me and guys took turns taking the shots from my body. It was hilarious. People were ‘oooing’ a lot, and I was just having a blast. That’s when I spotted someone leaning against the wall, looking at me weird. But by then, I was slightly too buzzed to care, so I turned my attention to James, who was going for his third shot. I laughed when I saw Luke next to my table.

“This is really uncomfortable,” he grinned. “I was bribed with the image of a beautiful, half-naked girl, and I come here to see you on the table.”

“You got an upgrade!”

“Right. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go throw up. It’s not a nice sight seeing people licking your sort of sister’s stomach.”

“Bye bye love!” I hollered, still laughing.

By then I’d identified the creepy guy as Calum, and waved him over.

“Are you just gonna stand there and stare?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He smirked.

“Can I get a turn?”

“Thought you’d never ask.”

The tequila guy was about to pour the shot when Calum shooed him away.

“I’ll do it.”

“Nah,” I intervened, as Calum was about to place the tequila on my chest. “I don’t trust you with that part of my body.”

Calum’s smirk widened.

“What? Because you trust white-boy here?”

“It’s not that I trust him, I just don’t mind it. He’s cute.”

While the guy blushed, Calum didn’t bite and just nodded solemnly in mock-agreement.

“And I’m inflammably hot? Hmm, I understand your concern. But don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” he replied, the dangerous glint in his eyes a promise of the contrary.

He placed the glass between my breasts, and only the warning glare I sent him kept his hand from lingering there. Sending me a knowing smile, he went to the other side of the table and leaned over my body. A wave of heat washed over me as he hovered his upper body a few inches over mine, his eyes holding mine challengingly. 

Then he dropped his head to my stomach and took his sweet time licking the salt from it, not even trying to hide how much he was enjoying this. As he made his way to my chest, going for the shotglass, images flashed through my head, of him licking me, of me touching the tense muscles of his stomach as he moved over me, harsh breaths echoing in the room, all limbs and moans and tongues and—jeez, my drunken mind was taking this far.

As if he knew what I was thinking, Calum sent me an infuriating grin and drank his tequila quickly before hovering his full lips over mine teasingly. I raised an eyebrow as if to tell him to hurry the fuck up, and he complied, delicately grabbing the lime between his teeth. I bit my lower lip as he reluctantly moved away, enjoying the way his eyes immediately darkened. I couldn’t help a grin. I had him exactly where I wanted him.


	12. She's a rebel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and kuddos if you like? x3

CHAPTER 12: She’s A Rebel – Green Day 

Cami’s POV:

I woke up in a place that definitely wasn’t my bedroom. I also definitely wasn’t alone. There was someone’s head on my stomach, and there were at least two other people on the bed. Squinting in the dark, I recognized Luke as the one who’d been using me as a pillow. James was lying next to me, and someone I didn’t know was sleeping across our legs at the foot of the bed.

Groaning, I pushed Luke away and got out of bed. I guessed I was in James’ room, but I couldn’t remember the details of last night. I remembered dancing with James, the body shots, dancing with the girls again, and then…kind of blank. Oh well. Nothing too bad had happened, since I was still fully dressed and Luke had been with me.

My phone was still in my backpocket, and looking through my recent messages, I found out I had warned my parents I’d be sleeping over. At least I didn’t have to worry about my parents going ballshit crazy on me.

I quietly stepped out of the bedroom and into a corridor flooded with light. Hearing the sound of voices, I followed them and walked into a kitchen of some sorts. Inside were Grace and another guy, Eric I think.

“Oh…hi,” I said awkwardly.

“Hey,” Grace smiled lightly. “Cami, right? I remember you.”

“I remember you too. You’re Calum’s girlfriend, huh?”

“Yes.”

I grimaced.

“I’m really sorry for you. I don’t know how you manage to put up with him.”

She cracked a grin.

“Neither do I.”

And with that, she turned to Eric.

“Should we go?”

“Yeah, I’ll drive you.”

“Hey, could you tell James we’ve gone?” She asked me, to which I nodded.

When they left, I sat on a stool and toyed with my phone, considering calling Lilah. On one side, she could tell me what happened after we danced together on the tables (oops), since my memory was still a bit blurry. But on the other side, if she wasn’t awake, she would hate me forever. Still, I dialed her number and put a few pieces of bread in the toaster as I waited for her to pick up the phone. I let out a sigh as it went to voicemail, and took a look at the fridge to see if there was anything to drink.

Taking out some OJ, I poured myself a glass and leaned against the counter, wondering who I could call. I had Louisa’s number, but I was afraid of her reaction if I woke up. I was considering ringing up Jenifer when someone entered the room. 

“Hmm, breakfast,” Calum said, his voice slightly raspy from having just woken up. Sexy.

“It’s mine,” I told him.

“Cool,” he said and took a piece of toast for himself. “Can you give me some juice?”

Rolling my eyes, I poured him a glass, earning myself a thankful smile.

“Your girlfriend just left.”

He shrugged, as if he couldn’t care less.

“I didn’t know you were staying over,” he commented.

It was my turn to shrug.

“Neither did I.”

“Where did you sleep?”

“In James’ room I think.”

“In James’ room?” He repeated in something like shock, making me chuckle.

“Not like that. We were like, four on the bed. I honestly don’t remember how it even happened.”

Calum yawned.

“I like your outfit.”

I looked down on myself, taking notice of my ruined fishnets with a wince.

“I have holes in my tights.”

“Looks even more punk rock,” he said, cracking a smile.

“Hmm. I guess that’s a good thing. God, I wanna go home.”

“I’ll drive you,” James said as he magically appeared in the room and walked towards us.

“No need, I’ll take you,” Luke said tiredly, following James into the kitchen. He walked over to me and kissed my cheek. “Morning, you.”

“Morning,” I smiled up at him. “Want a piece of toast?”

Taking the toast from Calum’s plate, I handed it to Luke. Calum, who had so far been surprisingly quiet, let out a disbelieving sound as Luke popped it into his mouth. Apparently the blonde hadn’t noticed that his enemy was in the room before, because he instantly zoomed in on the guy.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, his voice full of spite.

“I’m sleeping over at one of my best friend’s house. The question is more what are you doing here?” Calum replied in an equally venomous tone.

“Leaving,” Luke said shortly. “Cami?”

“Yeah, I’m coming.” I stood up from my stool and sent James a quick smile. “Thanks for yesterday, it was a cool party. Calum, I hope you’re done reading Pride and Prejudice, we’re working on it on Monday.”

Without waiting for an answer, I turned on my heels and followed Luke out of the house.

...

Luke had intended to just drop me off at my house, but I convinced him to stay instead. As we walked in, we came across my mom, who was apparently on her way out.

“Hey mom, where are you going?” I asked her.

“To the grocery store, your brother has eaten everything there was in the cupboards again,” she said, rolling her eyes (I might have gotten that habit from her) and taking a look at Luke. “And if you’re staying over, I’m gonna need double portions.”

Luke smiled angelically.

“I love you too, Ellen.”

My mom patted his head in mock affection and then was out the door, leaving Luke and me alone. We made our way to my bedroom and immediately crashed on the bed.

“I am so tired!” I yawned.

“Same,” Luke agreed. 

“Wait, do you remember everything about last night? Because I forgot somewhere along the dancing on the tables.”

“No wonder,” he scoffed. “After I left you to the bodyshots, I went back to the dancing floor and talked to Ethan for like ten minutes, and then I heard your voice yelling something about how everyone needed to dance along to the music. You didn’t exactly sound like yourself, so I hurried back to the shots room to see you and Lilah dancing on the tables. Needless say that every guy in the room was hooked. The two of you managed to get the whole dancing floor in the other room, and then you exchanged dances with alcohol. Every time you did a sexy move, someone was supposed to give you a shot of vodka. It lasted for um—a while. Eventually Lilah fell down the table and Ethan took her home with Jenifer. James decided to call it a night, but you wouldn’t get off the table until I forced you down. You clung to me so bad James had to let us both stay over.”

“Wow. That sounds…that actually sounds like something I would do.”

“I’m so jealous of how you never get hungover. Like, you were completely smashed, and you’re totally fine now. How unfair is that?” He pouted, making me laugh.

“Aww I don’t know. I’m blessed. By the way, I’ll have to thank James, he probably thinks I was totally ungrateful this morning.”

“Nah, apparently you’d already decided to sleep over. Somewhere between the shots and the selling your dancing talent for alcohol.”

I slapped the side of his head.

“You make me sound like a hooker!”

“Well…you kinda behaved like one.”

It was my turn to pout.

“Tell me no-one took videos!”

“Um, I’m pretty sure everyone did. The two of you were impressive to be honest.”

“Wait, wait. Why didn’t you stop it before? I know you, normally you would never have let it last so long. Why wait till Lilah was done for?”

Luke shrugged and looked away.

“What? What are you not saying Luke?”

“Ididn’twantto.”

“Excuse me?” I asked, a huge smile forming on my face.

“I didn’t want to,” he admitted sheepishly.

“Are you saying you were…um, enjoying Lilah’s dancing?”

“Shut up!” He yelled out, slapping the side of my head in a perfect imitation of me.

“Okay, okay, I’m letting it go. For now…”

He gave an exaggerated sigh.

“Why do you have to notice every little thing?”

“Should have thought of that before becoming best friends with a girl!” I laughed.

“Whatever. I still wouldn’t exchange you for anyone,” he announced before tackling me, crushing me to the bed under his weight. “Now let me sleep.”

I shook my head, still chuckling, but eventually felt myself drift out of consciousness.

...

When I woke up, about two hours later, I was alone on my bed. I lazily stood up and changed out of yesterday’s tattered clothes and into a pair of leggings and a huge tee-shirt. then walked down the stairs to the living-room, where Luke and my brother were playing video-games.

“Oooh, old timers!” I shouted and skipped into the kitchen to make some pop-corn.

“Well hello to you too, sleeping beauty,” Sam yelled back.

“Yeah, yeah, love you. Who wants pop-corn?”

At their synchronized yell of agreement, I rummaged through the cupboards and silently thanked my mom for having done the shopping, considering how much the two of them ate. I did a bowl of sugary and a salty one, filled three glasses of juice, and plumped down on the sofa between the two boys.

“Hey, why did you only do one salty one?” My brother immediately complained, then cursed as Luke demolished one of his guys. “Luke, don’t kill me when I’m talking food!”

“Sorry.”

They paused the game and turned to the pop-corn.

“You know we don’t like sugary!”

“And I don’t care,” I smiled. “That way I have a whole bowl for myself. You can share.”

“No! That’s not fair!”

“I don’t care!”

“Camiii,” Luke dragged out my name, his eyes pleading.

“No! I’m not giving in to your adorableness!” I argued.

“Cami, please!”

“Hey, if you make another batch of pop-corn, I’m calling off the prank I’d prepared,” my brother intervened.

I zoomed in on him.

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“And you won’t try to get revenge?”

“I promise.”

“Okay then.”

Leaving them to their game, I left to make them more food. Two minutes later, I was back and their first bowl of pop-corn was empty. I half-sighed, half-laughed.

“Really? Oh, well, it’s your problem.”

“Thank you!” Luke called out before starting to stuff his mouth, followed closely by Sam.

“So what had you planned for the prank?”

Keeping his eyes on the screen, my brother smiled mischievously.

“I might or might not have found an enormous spider when I was helping out dad in the garden. And I was sorta gonna put it in your bed.”

“You what? Asshole!”

He exploded into laughter, but even Luke looked a little shocked.

“You’re an awful brother,” I said hotly.

“Yeah, yeah, well now it’s off anyway. Calm down.”

“Luke, you better kick his ass!”

“You bet I will,” Luke smiled wolfishly, turning his attention back to the game.

Popping some pop-corn into my mouth, I made myself comfortable and watched in delight as Luke smashed my brother. Take that, you undeserving piece of shit.


	13. Go go go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, feedback is welcome x)

CHAPTER 13: Go go go – Sleeping with Sirens

Calum’s POV:

Since I’d decided to go after Cami, things hadn’t been going so well. She ignored me for the better part of the week, making me go to such lengths as to read a book for her, then she got drunk and danced in a way to make me half lose my mind, and the next morning she talked to me as if we were back to normal. Whatever ‘normal’ was. Safe to say I was confused. What the hell was up with this girl?

I got it when they were interested. I got it when they weren’t. I got it when they pretended not to be. What I didn’t get was the way she was behaving. Moodswings much?

Anyway, it had me confused enough that I was extremely wary going in French class on Monday morning. What would she be like?

I sat next to Eric, as usual, who took it upon himself to describe in details how he’d gotten lucky at James’ party, and then ditched the girl to sleep with my girlfriend. Eric was one of the few guys who knew that my relationship with Grace was fake. Not because we were close, but because he had quite a few times gotten ‘close’ with my girlfriend. No hard feelings.

“That’s great, Eric,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, no need to go all mighty on me. By the way, how is it with Linda?”

“Linda?”

“Yeah, you know, the girl you’ve been chasing for three weeks and finally got?”

“Why do you care? Wanna know if she’s for grabs?” I snickered.

“Maybe I do.”

“Well, you know I don’t do second times. So go ahead, have your fun. Not sure she’ll be very willing, but you can try.”

At this point, I wasn’t really paying attention, because Cami and her friend had just entered the room. Immediately I tried to assess her mood. Was she going to be accessible or not? As If sensing my gaze, she raised her head and met my gaze. Seeing how pleasure lit up in her eyes as she noticed I’d been looking at her, I smirked. So this scheme of mine wasn’t completely hopeless.

I inclined my head towards the table in front of mine, where the two of them had made a habit of sitting, but she just smiled and followed her friend to the front of the room. Talk about confusing.

But I wasn’t going to go all puppy-dog on her and follow her (that was not in my seduction book), so I just shrugged and turned my attention to Eric again.

...

At lunch, I was talking to Mike about the dinner at Grace’s parents when my attention was caught by a pretty blonde coming to our table. Okay, scratch the ‘pretty’. To be honest, I had no idea what her face was like, there was enough to look at on her body.

“Are you Calum?” She asked in a shrill voice.

“Hmmm?” I managed to say, failing to detach my eyes from her generous cleavage.

“Hey, I’m new here, and I was told you wouldn’t mind showing me around?”

Nevermind that it was the second week of school, or that no one would ever point to me to help someone out. Any excuse was good for a quickie. I didn’t ask why she needed one. Getting back at a boyfriend, sexual frustration, whatever. I didn’t really care.

“Sure, I’ll help you,” I said, getting up from my seat.

I ignored Mike’s low wolf-whistle, too focused on the newbie, whose name I still hadn’t caught. Not that I cared. I told her to follow me, and she complied, letting me drag her to the nearest bathroom. Locking us inside, I faced her with a smirk.

“Don’t you know I have a girlfriend? What makes you think I’m interested?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she replied cheekily, slowly taking her top off. “Maybe because you haven’t exactly met my eyes yet.”

“Fair enough.”

“Or that you are completely hard…”

All words dried in my throat as she took hold of my indeed very happy dick. Pushing her against the wall, I took back control of the situation and started to suck the sensitive spot at her neck, eliciting a moan from her lips.

“That’s bullshit,” I said. “Any boy would be the same with that,” at which point I grabbed her left breast.

Taking off her bra, I softly traced patterns on her skin, causing her nipples to harden. She started panting and rubbed her hips against mine.

“I’m friends with Anika…she said… you wouldn’t mind.”

Accepting that as a logical reason, I turned my full attention to her…um, assests, and effectively rendered her speechless.

...

An hour later, I was definitely in a better mood and entered English class much less stressed than I was this morning. Cami was already sitting at the same table she had the first day, and I plumped down next to her. Noticing my presence, she turned to me and hid a pleased smile.

“Well hello Calum.”

“Well hello Cami. I’ll let you know I finished the book.”

She fake-gasped and smiled hugely, gently tapping my shoulder in mock-praise.

“Good boy! I knew you could do it!”

Instead of taking her up on her sarcasm, I smiled sweetly.

“It’s all thanks to you, with your weird threats and scary French attitude.”

She just shook her head.

“I am so proud of you, Calum.”

“That may be so,” intervened the teacher, who’d sneaked up on us, “but it is not my case. Mr. Hood, how nice of you to join us. Care to explain why you’ve been absent the whole of last week?”

“Um, I was sick.”

“Does that explain why you were present in your other classes?”

“Excuse me, I’m pretty sure you are wrong,” I replied cheerily, not missing a beat. “If you’d care to verify your facts, Ma’am, you’d find that I was also absent to half of the other classes. I went to school every time I felt a bit better, it just so happens that was never the case when I had English.”

The teacher opened her mouth to reply, but ended up shaking her head and sighing instead.

“Well then, I’m glad you’re healed. I expect you to be there at every class from now on. I await a lot from you on this project, Mr. Hood. Do not disappoint me.”

I stared at her retreating back. What the fuck was that? ‘I await a lot from you’? ‘Do not disappoint me’? Sounded like some weird Hogwarts shit.

Anyway, in the meantime Cami was asking for her book, which she’d lent me a week ago.

“I might have forgotten it?”

“Ugh, you suck.”

“And you swallow,” I said instantly, wiggling my eyebrows wildly.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She smirked.

I blinked, at a loss, making her chuckle.

“Oh, boys. You’re all the same.”

“Pffff, bullshit. I’m much better than anyone else.”

“Right. Well then, hotshot, let’s get working.”

I sighed heavily as she started discussing the angle with which we should tackle the problem, talking characters, plot, narrator status and a bunch of things I didn’t understand. Within five minutes, I was just staring at her mouth forming words, none of which made any sense to me. Had she suddenly changed to French or something?

Sighing, she waved a hand in front of my face, making me pout.

“Have you listened to a single thing I’ve said?”

“I don’t understand a fucking thing,” I shrugged.

She laid her head backwards and looked at me through slitted eyes, the stark blue of her irises peeking through black eyelashes. Shit, I was staring again.

“I don’t understand you,” she finally said. “Obviously you’re not stupid. I thought you might be pretending, but now I think you’re just easily distracted. You’re not patient, and when something doesn’t bend to your will immediately, you give up.”

She said it simply and in an even tone, but even I could hear the judgment in her words.

“That’s not true,” I defended myself. “I once waited three whole weeks for a girl to give in.”

She chuckled.

“Right. But you won’t make me believe you didn’t get any in the meantime.”

“Well duh,” I deadpanned.

“There you go. I’m also guessing you’re not used to fighting for what you want—”

“Hey,” I cut her off in annoyance, “if I wanted to hear someone analyzing me I would have gotten an appointment with a therapist.”

“Whatever. Are you free on Wednesday?”

“Why? Are you asking me out?” I mocked.

Truth is, I was more than a bit destabilized by the way she’d just said, and I hoped a few jokes might regain me my footing.

“No, but I think you might actually be more receptive if we didn’t work on the project in class. So I’ll see you at my place after school on Wednesday, kay?”

“Sure… Where do you live again?”

“I’ll send you the address.” 

“You don’t have my number,” I pointed out.

Sending a quick glance to the teacher to verify that she wasn’t looking our way, Cami fished up her phone and looked at me expectantly. I recited my number to her, and immediately my phone buzzed. 

From Unknown: You shouldn’t be checking your phone in class

I rolled my eyes and, saving her as a contact, quickly typed an answer.

To Frenchie: You shouldn’t be checking me out in class

She scoffed and I smiled unabashedly.

From Frenchie: well that’s a bit hypocritical coming from you, eh?

To Frenchie: hey I’m not the one who made all the boyz thirsty on S

From Frenchie: including you?

To Frenchie: last I checked I was a boy yeah

From Frenchie: I’m sorry to say that was a 1 in a life time opportunity :P

From Frenchie: I don’t get that drunk that often

I didn’t have time to reply as the bell rung, ending the class. As always, I was the first one to be done packing my things and to be on the way out.

“See you on Wednesday, Frenchie!” I said chirpily and blew her a kiss.

I just caught a glimpse of her rolling her eyes mid-grin before leaving the room.

Unsent: To Frenchie: Too fucking bad


	14. Running with the boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gimme gimme gimme kuddos before midnight! (ok i suck peace out)

CHAPTER 14: Running with the boys – Lights

Cami’s POV:

“Come on, please!” Luke pleaded with me.

“No! If you want to buy movies, go do it alone.”

“But I need your opinion! We both know we’re gonna end up watching them together anyway.”

“Ugh, whatever. I guess my Math homework can wait.”

“Hey, speaking of that, Lilah’s coming over tonight for the tutoring.”

“Aha! That’s why you want to buy movies. You want to know what she would like!”

“Yes. See, I need your help, and quickly.”

“Alright, alright. I hope for your sake it’s not too far away.”

Smiling hugely, he took hold of my arm and practically dragged me down the next few streets. Catching a glance of Rebecca and Jenifer, I awkwardly waved at them. They just shook their head and smiled at the sight of Luke hauling me along to the video store.

“See you tomorrow!” Jen yelled, and I sent her thumbs-up.

Finally we arrived to the store, and Luke eagerly stepped inside. Immediately a guy a few years older than us with hazelnut hair and matching eyes came towards us and smiled, flashing dimples.

“Hello,” he said in a very Australian voice. “How may I help you?”

“Cut the crap Ashton. You can’t help me, though,” Luke shook his head. “Not this time. I need a girl’s advice.”

Ashton raised his eyebrows and turned to me expectantly, probably waiting for an introduction. I shrugged at him as Luke disappeared in the rows of DVDs.

“Oh well, since Luke seems to have forgotten his manners, I’ll just introduce myself,” I grinned. “I’m Cami.”

“You’re American,” Ashton noted appreciatively.

“Yes I am. I’m also a lot of other things, but that seems to be what everyone remembers…”

“Well, I’m remembered as video guy. I don’t know if it’s any better…”

“True,” I nodded. “So you work here?”

“Yup. It’s where I met Luke, by the way. He your boyfriend?”

“Nope, best friend.”

“Oh, so you’re free?” He asked mischievously.

My eyebrows shot up.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Are you?” He asked, flashing dimples again.

“Stop hitting on Cami,” Luke groaned, reappearing at my side. “You would be a terrible match, so just forget it.”

That being said, he dragged me along to the movies section.

“Okay, so what does she like?”

“Action movies.”

“Really? That’s great! I have tons of action movies.”

He still bought a few more to be sure, and then looked at me pensively.

“You know what we need, Cami?”

“What?”

“We need a new series to binge-watch. You know, like we used to do?”

“Oh my god yes! But what?”

“I don’t know… Something funny but scarily cool at the same time.”

“Uh… Do you think now’s the time to ask for Ashton’s help?”

“Sure.”

We walked back to the front desk, where Ashton was sitting, fiddling with his phone.

“Hey, we kind of need your help with something,” I told him.

After we’d told him what we were looking for, he started rattling off options.

“How I met your mother?”

“Done.”

“Sherlock?”

“Done.”

“Game of Thrones?”

“Are you kidding? Of course we watch that!”

“Supernatural?”

I groaned.

“I’m so done with this show. Every time I say my little brother’s name is Sam, it’s got everyone looking at me weird.”

“Your brother’s name is—” Ashton cut himself off and changed questions. “But have you ever watched it?”

“No.”

“Then give it a try. It’s great.”

I was about to say ‘no’ when I saw Luke’s face. He looked so interested and eager I guessed he’d probably wanted to watch it for a while. I gave a sigh.

“Okay, we’ll take that.”

Luke bought the first two seasons and we were off.

“My mom really misses you,” Luke told me as we neared my house. “She’s always bitching about how your mom has seen me but she didn’t get to see her surrogate daughter yet.”

I smiled fondly at the thought of Liz.

“Tell her I’ll come by tomorrow. I don’t wanna crash your date with Lilah,” I winked.

“It’s not a date! We’re gonna be studying Math.”

“Yeah, that’s why you bought movies.”

“Shut up. It’s not like I like her.”

“Don’t you?” I asked him, narrowing my eyes.

He shrugged.

“I have no clue! Two days ago I was sure I was into Rebecca.”

I nodded wisely.

“Life is complicated.”

“Complicated life is,” he added in the same tone.

“Shut up Yoda,” I laughed. “Oh well, have fun with Lilah! You better text me how it goes.”

At his nod, I took off to my own home. As I sat down on my bed, I found myself thinking back to Ashton. He was a good guy, I decided. I’d better introduce him to the rest of my friends.

...

Wednesday came around really fast. Just like the preceding day, Lilah kept talking about how adorable Luke had been at their tutoring until I finally told her that if she didn’t shut up I’d jump from a window. Seriously. Crushes were cute, but even I had a limit.

Luke, on his side, still denied that he liked her, but I caught him looking at her more than a few times during the day. Oh, young love… As it was, he seemed to have gotten over Rebecca pretty quickly, which wasn’t a wonder in itself. While she was really nice and a generally great person, she wasn’t crazy enough to ‘work’ with Luke, too calm… Lilah, on the other hand… Yeah, she would do. I smiled at the thought of their possible relationship. Ship.

I was just thinking these things as I hitched a ride home from school in her beautiful car – still jealous. Something else on my mind was the fact that Calum was coming over later. I had mixed feelings about it. On one side, I really wanted to get a good grade since English was usually my best subject, but on the other hand I also wanted the whole seduction plan to work, and I wasn’t sure working on a book together was the right way to get to him. The fact we might have a project together hadn’t been in my thoughts when I sat next to him that day. Lilah, however, was more than a bit excited when I told her about it, and she made me promise to text her everything once he had left.

I sighed as I took in the sight of my messy room. I knew I probably should tidy it up…but there was this movie on Netflix that was just waiting for me. Plus, I’d bet his room was much more messy anyway, he wouldn’t mind. And even if he did, it wasn’t like I cared.

Halfway through my fantasy movie, I heard the doorbell ring and closed my laptop with a disgruntled groan. Onto work then. Calum was waiting in the entryway when I got down, awkwardly small-talking with my brother.

“Finally you show up,” he huffed as I made my way to them.

I ignored his words and gave a small wave to my brother, whom I hadn’t seen yet as I’d spent the afternoon locked in my room.

“Hey,” I then told Calum, smiling a little. “Let’s do this in my room, yeah?”

His eyebrows shot up, and his usual smirk made its appearance.

“I like the sound of that.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m sure you do.”

As I’d predicted, he didn’t make any comment on the messiness of my room, but instead ran to the bed and jumped on it.

“Ah! This is so comfortable,” he sighed contently, lying down.

Under other circumstances I would have yelled out ‘I know right?’, but this was Calum Hood, and he was on my bed. That’s what you call a recipe for disaster.

“Get off my bed,” I told him sternly.

“Never! I’m never leaving this place!” He shouted, clinging to my bed like to a lifeboat.

“Yeah. Yeah, you are. Now. We have to work.”

He sighed dramatically and sat up, frowning.

“Do we have to?” He asked, dragging out the words.

He then proceeded to give me a puppy-dog look, which, along with the pout, had my heart almost skip a beat. It was only the tough training with Luke that kept me from giving in.

“Yes.”

My voice was unwavering, and he immediately dropped the cute look to go full grumpy on me.

“Fine. I don’t even know what I’m doing here anyway. What the fuck do I care about this project?”

“Ah, there’s the asshole I know!” I grinned. “You care about this project because you care about your balls, and if we don’t get a top grade on this, you can say your goodbyes.”

He stared at me in horror.

“You’re horrible.”

“Call me Cami,” I smiled angelically. “And now get here,” I added, patting the chair next to mine at my desk.

Calum, still looking at me with disbelief and disgust written all over his face, sat down next to me. I took up the book lying on the desk and narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out how I’d tackle this with my extremely unhelpful partner.

“Okay. So what did you think of the book?”

To my surprise, he actually considered the question.

“It was okay, I guess. I hated about all the characters, and the plot was sappy as fuck, but it was funny sometimes.”

I winced at his lack of appreciation, but carried on.

“So why did you hate the characters?”

“Half of them are crazy, Jane and her lover are boring, Darcy is a proud asshole and Elizabeth is full of prejudices.”

“Well that’s the point. Pride and Prejudice.”

As we started discussing the meaning of the title and the book, I realized I’d been right. Calum was far from being a stupid, and he turned out to have understood the book quite well. This boded well for the project. If only he’d get rid of that attitude of his and put a damper on his constant and ridiculous(ly good) attempts to be charming.

After about an hour and a half of talking back and forth, I’d jotted a few lines of thought we could use in the project, and we decided to call it a night. We agreed on next Tuesday for our next meet-up. He gave me an awkward goodbye wave and hurried down the stairs like he couldn’t get away from me fast enough. Oh well.  
The minute he left, my brother almost pounced on me.

“Was that Calum Hood?”

“How the fuck do you know of him?” I asked, frowning.

“Everyone knows of him.”

“We’ve been here for like, a week.”

“Yeah, plenty of time to hear of the badasses of the school, even if they’re a year above. Trust me, him and his friends’ prowesses are well-known among guys,” Sam said vigorously, his eyes wide. “Though he has a girlfriend now,” he added as an afterthought. “Speaking of which, she is hot.”

“Hot damn,” I laughed.

“Call the police and the firemen! I’m too hot!”

And so we started yelling our lungs out to the over-played song, forgetting all about Calum and his ‘beauteous’ girlfriend for a bit.

“Anyway,” Sam said when we finished singing, suddenly all business. “Since when do you hang out with guys like him?”

“I don’t.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“What, are you gonna go all protective-brother on me now? I already have Luke to do that, plus you’re the youngest in this family. I should be the one protecting you.”

“That’s bullshit. We should protect each other.”

“Yeah, yeah, ohana and all that crap. In the meantime, may I remind you Calum has a girlfriend? We’re just here to work on some random English project we’re partners on.”

“Right. But it can’t be too random if he actually agrees to work on it. Fyi, from what I heard, Calum doesn’t work. Ever. So there’s definitely something up here.”

“Really?” I said half to myself, a smile playing at my lips.

So maybe the whole project wasn’t such a bad thing after all…


	15. I don't care

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Give me love for this extra long chap!!

CHAPTER 15: I Don’t Care – Fall Out Boy

Cami’s POV: 

 

The next day, I shrugged off Luke’s questions about the meet-up, since nothing interesting had actually happened. Instead, I grilled him about his feelings for Rebecca and Lilah, which ended in him smacking my arm and me ignoring him for the rest of the period.

At lunch, we met up with Ethan and Jeremy, since the other girls were running late. I glumly picked at my food, thinking of the dreaded sports class coming after this. Last week the teacher had been absent, so I’d been able to escape the torture, but it seemed like it wouldn’t be the case today.

“Come on, it’s not that bad,” Ethan said encouragingly. “You’ll survive.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty fun,” Jeremy agreed. “Apparently we’re doing football this semester.”

“You do football here?” I asked, surprised. “But that’s like, super dangerous!”

“What?”

“When people have to wear helmets and protections all over their body, the sport qualifies as dangerous in my book,” I retorted, seeing Jeremy’s dubious expression.

“You don’t wear helmets in football.”

“Yes, you do.”

Luke sighed.

“Cami, we’re talking soccer, not football.”

“Soccer? Then why were you calling it football, idiots? You know I’m American.”

“Because literally everyone else in the world calls it football.”

“And it’s played with your feet, contrary to your football,” Jeremy added. “Wake up America, you’re wrong.”

I huffed indignantly.

“America is never wrong.”

They all looked at me in something like amused pity, and I scowled. Damn, I was outnumbered.

“Anyway,” Ethan said, “the coach’s real nice. He oversees the school’s soccer team too, and they’re crazy good.”

“Is he gonna expect miracles from us?” I asked. “Because I’m happy to comply in every other subject, but sports is like, no. This body is not meant to do any sports,” I said, pointing at myself.

“Really?” Ethan mocked me. “Because that was some pretty good dancing the other night…”

“I was drunk, it’s not the same,” I argued.

“True!” Luke laughed. “She becomes a different person when she’s drunk.”

“No, I become my inner self!”

“So your inner self is a perverted dance goddess?” Luke asked, grinning at me.

“Yup!” I stuck out my tongue. “Sue me.”

Luke faked a shudder.

“Never! You’d probably seduce the judge into winning the case, then marry him and take all his money before dumping him.”

“Wow. You really have got my personality down.”

“I wouldn’t be a good best friend if I didn’t,” he answered with a wink.

“Whatever. I’m still worried about this football slash soccer thing. I don’t even know the rules.”

Jeremy, obviously a fan of the sport, started enumerating all the rules and exceptions and facts and God-knows-what until he saw my flabbergasted expression and stopped his rambling.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “ but I didn’t get a word of that.”

“Basically,” Ethan told me with great patience, “there’s two teams who fight for the ball and try to put it in the nets of the other team. No touching the ball with hands.”

“That’s all? How did he,” I said, pointing at Jeremy, “make it sound so difficult?”

“Maybe cause he’s on the team?”

I raised my eyebrows at Jeremy.

“You’re on the team?”

“Yep. I’m goalie.”

“So you just stand in front of the nets and let all the others do the running?” I asked him with a teasing smile.

Jeremy grimaced while Luke said bluntly:

“Pretty much.”

That got him a hit on the head by Jeremy, but he only laughed.

“Come on. You’re gonna want some time to change.”

I let the boys lead me to the changing rooms in the gymnasium, though apparently we would have class in the soccer fields outside. Yay, sports under the scorching sun. So much enthusiasm…

In the changing rooms, I tried to engage in a conversation with some of the girls, but they just looked at me weirdly. Okay… I was just wondering if I’d stumbled across mute people when Grace showed up and they crowded over her excitedly. That’s when I realized they were just snobbing me. Popular bitches. However, Grace walked over to me with a smile.

“Hi, how are you?” she asked, and immediately all the other girls zoomed in on us. Awkward.

“Hey,” I smiled. “I’d be great if I wasn’t on the brink of death.”

“Oh?”

“Sports and me…nuhuh,” I explained.

“Really? That’s strange, considering how fit and flexible you look.”

What the fuck was that for a comment?

“Ah, yeah, but absolutely no coordination skills I’m afraid,” I winced.

“Aww that’s really too bad. We could have used someone like you on the cheerleader team.”

The cheerleader team? I groaned inwardly. Of course she was a cheerleader.

“Sorry?” I said.

I didn’t mention that even if I was a Olympic champion in gymnastics I would never sign up for cheerleading. Pompoms, really?  
Grace just waved my apology away.

“Anyway, it really isn’t too bad. I don’t know how sport classes are in America, but here it’s pretty fun!”

“Everyone keeps saying that,” I muttered.

We headed to the soccer field together, her herd of sheep trailing behind. Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh. I didn’t want to sound bitter or anything, but why did they all have to have perfect tans and hair and legs and ugh, I hated Australian girls.

The three boys were already on the field when we arrived, and after sending a smile in Grace’s direction, I scurried towards them.

“Making new friends?” Luke asked, his raised eyebrow telling me he didn’t approve of the choice.

“Shut up. She’s nice. Plus, I feel bad for her.”

“You feel bad for the most popular – not to mention best-looking – girl of the whole school?” Jeremy asked dubiously.

“She’s dating Calum,” I said with a grimace. “And by the way, best-looking? I’m hurt.”

“What? I’m objective.”

“Ouch.”

Ignoring my wounded look, Jeremy turned his attention to what I assumed was the coach – a forty-ish athletic-looking man. As he went over to talk to him, I plumped down on the grass, Luke and Ethan following suit. I looked up as another person sat down next to us, expecting to see Jeremy, but it was Calum.

“I’m beginning to think you’re stalking me,” I said in a conversational tone.

“Maybe I am.”

“Creep.”

He smiled and was about to answer when Luke cut in irritably.

“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

Turning to him, I gave him my best this-whole-seduction-thing-was-your-plan-so-shut-up-now look, pairing it with a:

“Play nice, Luke.”

Calum smirked superiorly.

“Yeah, play nice Lucas. Be a good dog.”

Surprisingly enough, Luke didn’t take the bait, but instead leaned back and put his head on my lap, sighing contentedly. What was he playing at? Then I caught Calum’s dark look and understood. Seriously, testosterone was so fucked up – the guy didn’t even like me but he still felt possessive. Well, back to your place, arrogant dick.

“So, are you any good at soccer?” I asked Calum, idly playing with Luke’s hair.

“I’m on the team. Best player,” he said confidently.

My eyebrows shot up.

“Really?”

“Of course.”

I looked at Ethan for confirmation, and the boy nodded.

“Is everyone on the team or what?” I looked down at Luke, catching his blue eyes. “Are you?”

“No,” he grimaced. “I don’t like soccer.”

I grinned at him brilliantly, feeling Calum’s stare weigh down on me.

“Ah! A fellow lost soul!”

He lazily raised a hand for a high-five, but instead I took it into mine, lacing my fingers with his. Just then, Jeremy made a comeback. He took a look at Luke and I’s intertwined hands and frowned.

“Did I miss something?”

“You tell me,” Ethan said. “Aren’t they always touchy and weird?”

Shrugging, Jeremy turned to a very embarrassed Calum (he was probably wondering how the hell he could have thought coming over to say hi had been a good idea) and mumbled a greeting. Apparently being on the same soccer team didn’t mean they were friends.

Thankfully, the coach broke the awkward moment by calling us all to order. He started explaining what we would be doing during the year (‘football’, volley and dancing). Yuck. Then he made us run a few laps around the field – cue to excessive complaining on my part – and some stretching exercises. Finally, he split us into two groups. Apparently the teams were mixed, and I ended up with Ethan and Calum on mine, as well as ten other people I had no clue who were.

I breathed a sigh of relief, as we were the jersey-less team. I hated those jerseys, they were always sweaty and gross and ugly and yup, I sounded like a girl. To add to my happiness, Luke looked absolutely horrible in his, and I had a blast making fun of him with Ethan until he flipped us off, effectively shutting us up. Instead, I clung to his arm, pouting and demanding he excuse himself for his meanness. Eventually he cracked up and pushed me away, claiming he was sorry.

The coach blew in his whistle to get the lot of us to calm down (let’s jut say Luke and I weren’t the only ones making fools of ourselves), and threw the ball at Jeremy, who caught it easily. Show-off.

“Alright guys. Teams are of about same level, you confer with the captain of your team and start the match when I say so, got it? Get going!”

Apparently Calum had self-titled himself captain, because I didn’t remember the teacher appointing him as such at any time. Anyway, he looked us all over once or twice and assigned us positions. I was to be ‘left middle-attacker’. I’m pretty sure he ignored our look of complete and utter what-the-fuck on purpose, just pointing us to an approximate spot on the field. Whatever. Then the coach whistled and the game started. Immediately Calum got hold of the ball and then it was all a blur until the coach blew in his whistle again.

Calum jogged back towards us, looking slightly furious. To be fair, none of us had moved from our spots. We hadn’t even had time to react before it was all over.

“Did we score?” A brunette ventured.

“No, we fucking didn’t!” Calum spat. “Attackers, you need to follow me when I take the ball. It’s not called a team-game if there’s no team with me. Defenders, in case they actually manage to get hold of the ball, you make sure it doesn’t cross that line,” he said, pointing to something in the distance. Any questions?”

His voice discouraged any questions, but I decided to take my chances and brave his mighty wrath.

“So, what about middle players, or whatever? What do we do?”

A corner of his mouth curled.

“You do what you can not to screw my game over.”

That being said, the game started again. Once again, it all happened much too fast for me to follow anything, but this time the other attackers followed Calum, and soon we were at 2-0. I just ran around a bit, but the ball never actually came close to me, so I was saved the embarrassment of trying – and inevitably failing – to actually do something.

At the break, I went over to Ethan, who was playing as attacker, and asked him a few questions about the game.

“So is Jeremy a bad goalie or what?”

“No, he’s really good, but they have a pretty shaky defense, and that’s no good when you’re up against Calum.”

“I thought the teams were of same strength?”

He shrugged.

“For it to be at same strength you’d have to make Calum sit it out. Unfortunately that’s impossible.”

“Huh. So he really wasn’t kidding when he said he was the best player.”

“Nope. Got to his head too. But at least he isn’t one of those who always want to fly solo. He actually understands the concept of a team.”

“Really?” I mused, gazing at Calum.

He was currently drinking some water from a bottle one of his friends was handing him. Sweat had made the fabric of his tank-top cling to him, highlighting his toned and lean body. Then Grace came up to him and I detached my eyes from him, turning back to Ethan.

“So how do you know so much about soccer?”

“Football.”

“Soccer.”

“Whatever. My dad’s a big fan of the local team, so I’ve been to a lot of official games. I’m shit at it, but I know basically everything about it.”

“Cool,” I nodded. “God I’m thirsty.”

“How is that even possible?” Luke’s voice came from behind me. “You didn’t do shit.”

“Speak for yourself,” I scoffed. “I didn’t see you with the ball at any time, huh?”

Luke was attacker in the other team, and so far they hadn’t made one move towards the nets, so I felt my comment was justified.

“At least I tried, contrary to you, who just sat and sun-bathed.”

“Well my sun-bathing has made me thirsty!” I retorted flippantly, and catching Calum’s gaze, I waved him over. “Could I have some of your water?”

He handed it to me without any comment, which had to be a first.

“What’s gotten in to you?” I chuckled. “Too tired for snarky comments?”

He rolled his eyes.

“As if. This match is boring, there’s literally no way it’s gonna tire me.”

“And we’re back to being bitchy then,” Luke muttered.

“Luke, weren’t you supposed to ‘play nice’?” Calum asked in a mocking tone.

“Weren’t you supposed to be the bigger person and stop antagonizing him?” I intervened sweetly.

Calum narrowed his eyes at me and a smirk took slowly form on his lips.

“Nah, I don’t think so.”

“Would have been too beautiful,” I sighed in mock-sadness.

He ignored my comment and looked back at Luke.

“Now if you’ll excuse us,” he said to Luke, “you gotta go back to your team because break is over.”

The second part of the game started out like the first one, that is with a great advantage to us. So-called advantage being an unruly, tattooed caramel-skinned little fucker. No, of course I didn’t take the opportunity of my inaction to stare at the muscles of his arms or his beautiful tattoos or his perfect hair or his shapely legs (which were totally better than mine by the way). What makes you think that?

But to be fair, I wasn’t exactly paying attention to the game, and so I was very very surprised when the ball suddenly rolled to my feet. Snapping my head up, my eyes widened impossibly as I saw the attackers of the other team charging me. My comrades were desperately running towards me, probably implicitly understanding that a soccer ball + Cami = disaster, but they weren’t fast enough and there was no way they would be here in time. Swallowing harshly, I tentatively nudged the ball with my sneaker.

From ahead, I heard a certain captain yell.

“Fucking move Cami!”

I gulped and kicked the ball ahead as hard as I could. It went right to Luke and he flashed me a thankful grin just as my team let out a collective groan.  
Oops?

Since I didn’t really want to let my whole team down, I hurried towards the line of attackers, trying to slow them down as much as I could. Distraction being the only thing I was capable of, I ran in zigzags in front of them, waving my arms around like a maniac. I saw a girl or two stop running to stare at me as if I belonged in an asylum. As did a few people on my team, actually.

“What the fuck are you doing?” One of the defenders the closest to me shouted, still going top-speed to join me.

“I don’t know!” I screamed back and jumped in front of Luke, arms extended to block his vision.

“Seriously Cami?” He asked, but it was clear that he was dying to laugh his lungs out.

Taking that as a sign of weakness, I took the opportunity to kick wildly at the ball, and was at least as shocked as everyone else as it flew between the legs of my best friend. By that time, Calum had almost arrived to us. He just took control of the ball and swirled around elegantly, racing back towards the nets. The turn of events was so surprising to everyone that the other team’s defense put up even less of a resistance than usual, and all too soon, we had scored another goal.

Thankfully that was the only time my help was requested, and for the rest of the time I just jogged a little from side to side, harmless. When the coach finally blew the whistle to signal the end of the match, I breathed a sigh of relief. With 6-1 (yeah they did put one in at some point, but I wasn’t even looking in that direction, so don’t you dare blame me), we had clearly dominated the others. The coach looked a little contrite and promised us the teams would be more even next time. Oh well, as long as I was on the winning side.

I headed back to the gymnasium with Jeremy, Ethan and Luke, the three of whom wasted no time teasing me.

“Cami, I gotta congratulate you on your defense skills,” Jeremy started.

“Yeah, that was impressive!” Luke laughed.

“Apparently it was, since I got the ball from you.”

Luke shrugged.

“Stroke of luck.”

“No, sorry mate, but you’re both shit at football,” Jeremy dead-panned.

“You looked completely crazy,” Ethan laughed. “I was on the other side of the field just going ‘oh god what the fuck is she doing’!”

“She looked like she was desperately trying to bat away a fly,” a girl from the opposing team chuckled.

“More like a wasp!” Another one said. “A big, freaky one too, with the way she was flailing around!”

The rest of the class joined in on the laughter, exchanging their impressions on my ‘performance’. Setting my jaw, I didn’t answer to their jabs.  
Usually, I had a high tolerance for mockery and loved to make a fool of myself between my friends, but public humiliation…no. I knew they weren’t trying to be mean, but despite appearances, I wasn’t exactly bursting with self-confidence. To make matters worse, Luke was too busy giggling like a schoolboy to notice how uncomfortable all this was making me. Disadvantages of befriending boys, I guessed. I had no doubt if Lilah or Jenifer had been here, they’d have picked up on it immediately. But, as it was, he let the twenty-or-so people laugh at me.

“Yeah, she looked absolutely ridiculous,” Calum spoke up harshly, his deep voice rising over the noise, suffering no objection. “But she’s also the only one who was any help.”

Having thus silenced everyone, he turned to Luke and narrowed his eyes, which made him look positively dangerous. “And you,” he spat, “are a poor excuse for a boyfriend or a friend or whatever the fuck you are if you don’t realize she might not appreciate being made fun of like this.”

All this he said without once looking my way, and strode off as soon as he’d finished his tirade. I could just stare after him, speechless. I had never ever thought Calum would be one to stand up for someone like that. Especially not me. Sure, he liked my body, but I didn’t even think he appreciated me as a person. I mean, we had that one conversation about Sleeping With Sirens, but apart from that…nope.

The rest of the class had dispersed already, the jocks going after Calum while Grace’s crew followed her into the changing rooms. The silence was heavy and I could feel the guilt coming off of my three friends in waves. Jeremy had his hands shoved in his pockets and was biting his lip, while Ethan was restlessly shifting, stealing looks at me. And Luke… Luke had his blue eyes downcast, shoulders slumped. He looked like a kicked puppy. I could tell he was re-running Calum’s words over and over again in his mind, and I could tell it hurt to have his enemy taking the defense of his best friend against him. I didn’t want him to beat himself over this, it wasn’t worth it, but I couldn’t seem to get the words through. Ethan was the first to try to speak up, but I cut him off gently.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

Walking over to Luke, I pecked his cheek. He sent me a quick look from under his lashes.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said. “And now stop looking at me like that, you’re gonna make me cry,” I added sternly.

He gave a small sigh before pulling me into a tight hug, penguin-style.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he whispered in my ear. “I’m a shit best friend.”

“That’s a load of crap,” I said fiercely. “You’re the best best friend I could ever have.”

Pulling away, he smiled slightly.

“Best best, huh?”

“Yes sir!” I grinned, and tapped his nose before waving them away.

I walked into the changing rooms to see that everyone else was already done. Shit, I was probably gonna be late. Thank god, my next subject was French. The teacher loved me as I was literally the only one who could put two words together, and if anything came up I knew Lilah would cover for me.


	16. Caraphernelia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :33

CHAPTER 16: Caraphernelia – Pierce the Veil

Calum’s POV: 

 

I was mad, and I didn’t understand why. It bothered me that the sight of Cami being teased had put me in such a mood. I mean yeah, I got protective over people, but not people like her. Not the ones I’d planned to be have a quick fuck with and then be done with. I knew that I was more interested in Cami then I’d been in any of my ‘victims’ for a while now, but I’d never thought about it more than that. She was sexy and had a too-cool-for-you attitude going for her, and that’s what had attracted me to her. Period. So why did I feel so fucking angry when I thought of how lost she’d seemed back there?

I found myself needing some time alone, and decided to ditch French. Plus, she’d be there and that was just a recipe for disaster. As I made my way to the park, I thought things over. What had happened today? First I’d planned to do a little flirting. She’d played along, like she often did, but then dumb blonde had intervened. I’d been angry when I saw her petting his head, because the purpose of this whole thing was to make him suffer and it wouldn’t work if he got to her first. She’d made me laugh when I saw how awkward she was on the field, not to mention the way she defended the nets. So what if the technique was a bit faulty? It worked, and it was hilarious.

At this point I realized something I couldn’t really deny anymore. I wasn’t just attracted to her physically. I liked her as a person. She was funny, she was fiery, she was punk-rock. And she made me feel smart, or at least not completely worthless. During the whole project thing, she’d actually asked for my opinion. Me, the guy who never gets good grades, never touches his textbooks, never reads a novel.

But I had. I had read a book, and why? Because she’d asked me to. That only should have alarmed me earlier. It grossed me out to even think it, but I might actually be developing – shudder – feelings for this girl. Wow. I really needed to have sex with her, get it out of my system and go back to being normal-Calum again. A thought struck me then, and I froze. What if there were other things about her that I would really like? I’d be royally fucked. Shit. This needed to be over with as soon as possible.

With that in mind, I went to the parking and waited to catch her at the exit. Taking out my IPhone, I put my earphones in and cranked up the sound, enjoying how the music was almost too loud, but not really. 

“Caraphernelia?” The sound of my best mate’s voice startled me out of my daze and I lowered the volume.

“What’s up with you and Pierce the Veil?” Mike asked me, wrinkling his nose. “Vic’s voice is so annoying.”

“Your voice is annoying.”

“Right back at you love,” he grinned. “So what are you doing here, splitting your ears in half?”

I frowned.

“That’s a weird expression.”

“Yeah yeah. Anyway, I wanted to tell you about something that happened yesterday.”

As Mike explained his story, which was basically about how he bought this new video game, I let him lead me back to my motorcycle. I stroked the black leather of the seat absently while Mike detailed the different options of the game.

“That actually sounds amazing,” I had to admit, still petting her.

“Yeah. You can just come by Friday and we’ll play. Hey, isn’t that your girl?”

I lifted my head, expecting to see Grace, but it was Cami who was determinedly making her way over the parking lot towards us. I shot Mike a confused look, but he just smiled a stood a few feet away, apparently interested in how the conversation would go.

“Frenchie,” I greeted her, a bit on my guard.

“You ditched French. You’re gonna flunk,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I’m already flunking. Why are so interested in my scholarly success?”

She gave a careless shrug.

“I’m not. I just wanted to thank you for standing up for—Oh my god.” 

Her eyes went crazy wide as she stared behind me. I followed her gaze, but the only thing there was my motorcycle. Surely she didn’t—

“Could you give me a ride home?” She asked almost breathless.

For someone whose whole plan had been to do exactly that, I was strangely destabilized. Placing a superior smirk on my face, I raised an eyebrow and leaned forward slightly.

“Do you mean you want a ride to your home or a ride at your home?”

“Whatever will get me on this jewel,” she answered carelessly, running a delicate hand over the red-coated metal, the black leather and the shining cogs in wonder. “She’s so beautiful.”

Instantly a shot of pride ran through me and erased all disbelief.

“I know, right?” I said, cracking a smile so big I could feel the corners of my eyes wrinkling.

I felt my heart swell as I looked at my motorcycle. Frenchie was right; there was no other way to describe the power encased in her massive motor, the elegance written in her sleek lines, the freedom etched into her every curve.

“Are you kidding me?” I heard Mike mutter from where he was leaning against his Mustang.

“She’s my baby.” Even I could hear the melting honey of my voice as I described what would always be the love of my life.

“Does she have a name?” Frenchie asked, still in awe.

Then again, who wouldn’t be? I’d had this motorcycle for a whole year, and I still was. She hadn’t even tried her yet.

“Shit, another psycho,” Mike interjected, though we both completely ignored him.

“Yeah. She’s Betty.”

“It suits her,” Frenchie beamed.

“So you want a ride home?”

“Hell yeah!”

“Alright, wait a sec.”

Opening the case under the seat, I took out the two helmets and handed one to her. She put it on expertly, confirming my theory that she’d been on a motorcycle before. But Betty wasn’t like any motorcycle. I hoped on the bike and held out a hand to Cami, who let me help her to her seat right behind me. I turned my head towards her to tell her to put her arms around me and hold tight when I realized she’d grabbed hold of the metal handles on each side of her.

She smirked at me then, and it felt like I’d been handed a mirror.

“What? Did you expect I’d let you take advantage of the situation? I’ve been on a bike before, you know.”

I shrugged, ignoring the sting of disappointment and shooting a dark glare at where Mike was laughing his ass off. Cami chuckled a little too. I could feel her presence only a few inches away; feel the warmth coming off of her. Then I turned the key in the ignition and savored the thrill as a surge of power ran through Betty, who gave off a low purr.

“Go!” Cami said excitedly, and I pressed on the accelerator.

With something like a growl, we took off, leaving Mike and his stupid car behind. The engine rumbled under us as we shot across the parking lot and onto the street. Cami lived only ten minutes away from the school – five with my mad driving skills – but she pressed herself against my back as we neared her house, and yelled into my ear.

“Drive drive drive!”

There was the type of eagerness in her voice you only got from adrenaline, like a fever burning high, and my heart slammed into my spine as I recognized the feeling. I directed Betty away from the city, towards the freeway, slowly increasing in speed until the wind was whipping my face and Cami was letting out delighted whoops of joy. Soon we were racing, the wind roaring up around my ears and obliterating all other sound. It was like Betty was eating the pavement, the flames drawn on her shiny sides leaving clouds of smoke behind us. I was laughing maniacally as I pushed the beauty further, driving much faster than the limit, swerving effortlessly around the cars. I felt alight, excited, free. We were flying through the air at top-speed, and it felt like time was standing still, stretched thin around us.

Sadly, all good things had an end, and after an hour of driving, I turned the bike back around. Heading back to the center of the city, I pulled over in front of a small Italian café.

“Why are we stopping?” Cami asked as I swiftly got off the bike.

“I’m hungry.”

I wasn’t looking, but I could almost hear her rolling her eyes.

“I hope you’re buying,” she muttered before sliding off Betty and taking off her helmet.

I put both of them back into the bike, and turned to see her shake her head roughly, flinging her hair around wildly.

“I probably look like a Medusa right now,” she half-sighed, half-chuckled.

Somehow she made it sound like she wasn’t fishing for a compliment. Instead of answering, I took hold of one of her stray strands and frowned.

“What color is this even? It’s not brown but it’s not red…”

She yanked her hair back from me with a hand and scowled.

“It’s called auburn.”

Ooh, touchy. Then she pointed at my own hair, whose dark color was streaked with blond.

“And what is this?” She asked, mocking my previous words. “It’s kinda black kinda yellow…”

I winced at the term, and answered shortly.

“It’s called highlights.”

“Oh, I’m disappointed. I thought it was natural,” she joked before making a face. “It looks weird.”

“No it doesn’t,” I said confidently. “It looks fabulous, not to mention sexy, and you know it.”

Grinning, I walked to the entrance and held the door out for her, faking a bow.

“Right this way, Mrs. Frenchie.”

As she went through, she gave my head a rough pat, incidentally ruining my perfectly styled hair.

“Thank you Mr. Fuckboy.” She caught eye of my scowl and a bright smile lit up her face. “Hey, now we both look like Medusa!”

I intended to glare at her, but the childish delight on her face made me laugh instead.

“Whatever,” I shook my head as we walked towards the counter.

As I asked the man for the coffee and ice cream I wanted, I stole a look at Cami, who seemed bit lost in thought. She looked far away, her eyes staring off into empty space. I bit my lip, sighed.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” I said, referring to what had happened in sports class.

She snapped to attention and stared at me uncomprehendingly. 

“You didn’t do anything.”

“Well, I did score all of those goals…” I protested, pretending to be offended.

She chuckled.

“Don’t worry about it. I acted like a weirdo, it’s normal that they made fun of me. I just don’t normally show that side of me to the whole world.”

“Why did you?” I frowned, taking the mug of coffee the man handed me.

“I don’t know. I guess I just ‘took one for the team’,” she said with a small grin, making quotation signs.

“Right.”

“What? Would you have scored if I hadn’t done my highly sophisticated diversion?”

“Of course I would have.”

“Right.” She mocked me. “You would’ve have flown over to them, attracted the ball to you with the help of the Force and then used your super powers to score from 50 yards away. You’re the soccer god after all.”

“Football god,” I corrected her.

“Soccer,” she insisted, setting her jaw. “So far I’m the only one who’s recognized you as a god, so you’ll be called what I say.”

“Shut up, Mrs. All American.”

“Oh, so it’s not Frenchie anymore?”

She leaned past me to ask the man behind the counter for an all chocolate muffin. As she straightened back up, I met her gaze with my trademark smirk I knew always got on her nerves.

“You know what else I’m a god of?”

“I’m gonna puke,” she warned me.

I wisely ignored that comment and led her to a small booth on the side.

“You don’t want anything to drink?” I asked as I saw she’d only taken a muffin.

“Nah. I don’t like coffee. Or tea.”

“There’s really good hot chocolate here.”

“I don’t like hot chocolate.”

My eyebrows shot up and I put a hand to her forehead.

“Do you feel sick?”

She slapped my hand away, her façade of annoyance cracking slightly as her mouth curled at one corner.

“I don’t like hot drinks, it makes me feel weird. Like, drinks are made to be a refreshment.”

“Why didn’t you take an ice-cream then?” I asked, motioning towards the one I was already half-done with.

“I don’t like ice-cream.”

“Damn it girl, is there anything you like?”

She smiled at me enigmatically.

“A lot of things actually.”

“You’re making me uncomfortable,” I said bluntly.

“Oh, please. You’re the manwhore here. I’m surprised I’m even able to have a normal conversation with you.”

“Maybe you bring out the best in me?” I proposed in a mocking tone.

“Nah. You just wanna get in my pants.”

Touché.

“I want to get in most girls’ pants,” I said carelessly. “Don’t feel special.”

She had a crooked smile then.

“Don’t worry. I don’t.”

I sipped at my coffee, the silence slowly stretching around us. It wasn’t uncomfortable though, it was the sort of silence between two friends who don’t need to talk to understand each other, and who are fine with just being in each other’s company.

Except Cami and I weren’t friends. Were we?

I looked up to see her munching on her muffin thoughtfully, humming a song under her breath. A song that I immediately recognized as Caraphernaelia.

“You like Pierce the Veil?” I blurted out a bit incredulously. 

“Well duh. I mean they kinda go hand in hand with Sleeping With Sirens. How could I like one and not the other?”

“Mike doesn’t like Pierce the Veil.”

“Mike as in Michael?”

“Yeah.”

She shrugged.

“Well, he’s an asshole. Why would he have a nice taste in music?”

“That’s my best friend you’re talking about,” I said defensively.

“Never said you weren’t an asshole.

I opened my mouth; thought better of it. I was just about to finish my ice-cream when Cami yelled out.

“Wait! Can I have that last bit?” She asked, pointing at the end of the cone, where the delicious chocolaty bit was.

“The hell you can. That’s my favorite part!”

“Please,” she pouted, widening her eyes in a puppy-dog expression.

They were shockingly blue. Not the usual faded blue most people had, or even the luminous, almost gray color girls digged. They were a darker shade of lagoon blue, without a trace of brown or green. Kinda really beautiful.  
Shit. I was staring. Finally I blinked and handed her the cone. Thankfully she’d been too caught up in the prospect of food to notice, and she sent me a giddy smile.

“Thanks!”

Once she’d finished the ice-cream and I was done with my coffee, we went outside. She was muttering something about how she shouldn’t have let me pay for everything, and I barely resisted the urge to laugh. Women, forever torn between their feminism and their need to be treated like princesses. Although Cami was nothing like a princess. I remembered the badass outfit she’d worn to James’ party, the one that had made me stare at her the whole time, in spite off all the girls who’d chatted me up. Today, she was wearing ripped skinny jeans and a black tank-top stating that normal people scared her. Pretty much as punk rock as you could get.

I was just about to start the motorcycle when I felt a pair of arms weave themselves around my waist. The muscles of my stomach tensed under Cami’s touch and I turned around in surprise. From under the helmet, her eyes were flashing with amusement, but she offered no explanation. She spent the rest of the trip back to her home pressed against my back, her arms tight around me, and I could hear the sound of her laughter like tinker bells in my ears.

Yep, princesses had nothing on this girl.


	17. Million dollar man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe i got a lil surprise for ya xD

CHAPTER 17: Million Dollar Man – Lana del Rey

Cami’s POV: 

 

I was smiling hugely as Calum dropped me off at my place. Swinging my leg over Betty expertly, I slid off her side with Calum following suit. Patting the now warm metal, I whispered her a thanks for what had probably the most exhilarating ride I’d ever had. I loved my bike, but never had she been able to reach such speeds. I’d had to leave her behind when we moved, so it’d been a while since I’d been able to taste freedom this way.

I handed Calum my helmet and watched him put it away along with his own. He turned to me, a question in his eyes, as in: ‘what are you still doing standing here?’ He’d no idea how much this meant too me, how much I’d missed motorcycles. I had to refrain myself from hugging the shit out of him. I wasn’t sure he’d appreciate that. So instead, I smiled at him coyly.

“Thanks for the date.”

He raised an eyebrow, eyes filled with amusement.

“This was a date? Says who?”

“Says me. And I’d like to point out that this is our first date and I didn’t get a kiss.”

His eyes darkened slightly and a smirk played at his lips as he took a step forward, towering over me.

“Oh yeah?” He asked, his voice low and velvety smooth. Sexy. “And what are you gonna do about it?”

With a half-smile, I reached up and curled my fingers around the jet-black hair at the nape of his neck, drawing him closer none too gently, and kissed him. He responded instantly, taking hold of my waist with one hand, and the pressure of his soft yet demanding lips against mine had all my thoughts fly out of the window. It was hot and passionate and needy and if I didn’t break away now—

I took a step back, breaking his hold on my waist. He leaned forward as I pulled away, brushing his lips against mine as if reluctant to let go, but I couldn’t afford to kiss him again. It hadn’t lasted more than five seconds, and I was effectively breathless. Shit, he was good.

“Well then,” I said, and was at least as surprised as relieved to hear that my voice was even, “off you go!”

I made a shooing motion with my hand and Calum let out a low, throaty laugh before turning around and heading to Betty.

“See you tomorrow, Frenchie!” He called out before disappearing with a roar from the motorcycle’s engine.

As soon as I got to my room, I collapsed on the bed.

“Ugh.”

My voice was muffled by the covers, and I couldn’t help wishing my thoughts could be muffled. But I was a big girl, and I would deal with what was happening. So I dialed Lilah up.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey! What’s up? What did you call for?”

“Guess who just went on a date with the infamous Calum Hood.”

There was a silence.

“You’re joking.”

“No.”

“Calum Hood doesn’t date.”

“Neither do I.”

“Oh my god you go girl! How did you convince him?”

“Umm… I didn’t exactly convince him. It sorta just…happened.”

She must have sensed there was something in my voice, because she immediately demanded I tell her everything, from the beginning. So I did. She didn’t interrupt once, listening on intently until I was done.

“I just have one question: do you like him? As in like like.”

“Of course I don’t like him! I can’t like him! It’s Calum Hood.”

“Yeah it is. But do you?”

“No!” I protested. “He’s an arrogant player who doesn’t give shit about anyone else but himself.” But my voice sounded unconvincing even to my ears, and I grimaced. “Okay, so I might have gotten a bit carried away, but it was because of the motorcycle. Plus everything is going according to the Plan.”

“Then why did you need to call me?”

I bit my lip and stayed silent. I had nothing to answer to that.

“Well, my advice is to just stick to the Plan,” Lilah stated confidently. “Be careful though, don’t play into his hands. Make sure you always have the upper hand, and you’ll be fine.”

I let out a sigh and nodded at her words.

“Yeah, you’re right. Thank you Lilah.”

“No worries. I’ll pick you up at your house tomorrow if you want. Or do you have a certain hottie to give you a lift on his badass bike?” She added teasingly.

“Nah, not yet,” I laughed, though it sounded a bit forced. “I’ll see you tomorrow then!” 

I had just hung up when there was a knock at my window. Looking over, I saw the face of my best friend hanging in the empty air. Okay, that was creepy.  
Walking over to the window, I opened it and hissed.

“What the fuck are you doing here? And how did you get up here?”

“I climbed the tree,” Luke said simply, gesturing to the oak tree under my window. “I’m hungry, do you have any food?”

I let out an exasperated sigh.

“Well, I haven’t eaten yet, so I can probably go downstairs and grab you something.”

Luke smiled at me a bit sheepishly, and I knew that he still felt bad about the thing in sports. When I came back with two plates of fries, he let out a low whoop of happiness and started jumping up and down on my bed. I rolled my eyes at his antics and quickly snapped a candid of him, planning to send it to Lilah later. She needed to know how childish he could be before she really fell for him.

As we ate (on the bed because we had no manners), I put my legs on top of his skinny jeans-clad ones and informed him that I’d just gone on a date with Calum. For some reason, I didn’t tell him about my mixed feelings about the whole thing, just told him that everything was going according to plan.

He was clearly pleased by this, and we kept talking about nothing and everything until sleepiness came over us both, and we cuddled in the bed.

“Tomorrow is school night,” I muttered as Luke made himself comfortable. “You can’t sleep over, Liz would kill you.”

Luke sighed in annoyance, but he knew I was right. Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, he blew me a kiss before disappearing through the window. Once he was gone, I let myself fall back against the bed, and by the time my head touched the pillow, I was asleep.

...

On Saturday, I finally went to Luke’s house and was attacked by ferocious hugs by his mother, his brothers and their girlfriends. It was amazing to see my second family again, and I stayed there the whole weekend.

The following week was kinda uneventful. I spent most of my time with the girls and Luke, who I could see was slowly becoming more and more interested in Lilah. Louisa was still her crazy, off-the-hooks self, while Jen and Ethan were as nice and adorable as ever. Rebecca, with whom I had talked the less of the whole group of friends, was quiet a lot of the time. According to Louisa, she needed a man. Oh well then. Jeremy wasn’t around much in our afternoon hangouts because his soccer practice had finally kicked in, meaning he spent a lot of time training.

As for Calum, I didn’t see much of him. He was his usual flirty self in English class, but ditched all French classes and called off our project meet-up, saying he had other plans. I figured his ‘other plans’ included a bed and a nice pair of legs, but didn’t say anything. As for the date and kiss, we didn’t talk about as if of a common accord. But all of that meant I now had to work on the project alone if I wanted it to go somewhere before the due date.

Friday afternoon, I was busy doing just that when my phone let out an angry buzz. Yawning, I took the call. It was Lilah.

“Girl! Get dressed, we’re going to a party!”

“We are?” I asked in confusion.

“Yep! I’ll be here in twenty!”

Grumbling, I put on a short, tight black dress and grabbed a pair of heels. Thank god I’d showered and shaved this morning. I pulled my hair in a messy bun and had just finished doing my make-up when the doorbell rang with insistence throughout the house. I walked down the stairs and into the foyer, where my mom had already opened for her.

“Hey Lilah,” I heard my mom greet her. “What’s up?”

“Hi Mrs. Rikkard,” she replied sweetly.

“Ellen.”

“Hi Ellen, I’m here to drag your daughter to a party,” she said chirpily. “If that’s okay with you,” she then added as an afterthought.

“Sure. Cami get out from where you’re hiding!” My mom yelled out and I walked over to them sheepishly. “As long as you don’t drink too much. Your sister’s coming over tomorrow.”

“She is?” I asked in surprise. Jane hadn’t visited us yet, though I knew she was loving the university life. “Well, you know I never get hungover anyway.”

Lilah grumbled something about life being unfair, but my mom shook her head.

“Still. Don’t get drunk. And I want you home at a decent hour, okay? No sleeping over. Now off with you guys,” she shooed us off.

We hurried into her car and she immediately drove off.

“Since when is there a party? I didn’t hear anything about it.”

“It’s new. Apparently the school’s soccer team just won the first game of the season, and some random jock is throwing an impromptu party to celebrate.”

“’Impromptu’?” I repeated, gently mocking her use of the elegant word.

“I, for one, have class,” she told me haughtily. “Anyway, I found out through Jeremy, and he invited all of us. Ethan and Luke can’t come though, because they’re away.”

This I knew. Luke had told me they were going to visit some scary place in the Australian desert with Ethan’s family, which I failed to understand the point of but okay.

“And do you know what a jock party means?” She asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

“That a lot of people are going to get drunk and stoned?”

She seemed on the point of shaking her head, then thought better of it.

“Well yeah, but that’s most parties anyway. What I mean is Calum will be there. It’s seduction time!” She shouted, clapping her hands excitedly.

“Oh my god,” I moaned.

“Thank god you decided to dress well,” she laughed.

“It’s one of the dresses we bought with the girls,” I informed her.

“I guessed so, you’d probably be incapable of picking anything decent on your own.”

“Hey!”

“What? I’m being honest. I couldn’t either, I had Jen help me with this,” she said, carelessly pointing at her own dress, a lilac beauty whose light material flowed around her.

“You look like a fey,” I randomly commented.

“Thank you,” she smiled. “A shame Luke won’t be here today.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Honestly girl, there are other fish in the sea.”

“Hey! He’s your best friend, shouldn’t you want me to want him? Or are you implying he’s never gonna like me back?” She was going for a light tone, but there was a slight tremble to her voice.

I shook my head.

“I’m not implying anything. I’m just saying there’s no use waiting around for him forever if he doesn’t realize you’re a perfect human being.”

“Awww…”

“And who knows? Maybe he needs a wake-up call.”

“Aka you’re implying I should be with someone else to make him like me?”

I shrugged, smiling lightly.

“So you were implying something!” She yelled out in triumph.

“Shut up,” I laughed. “Are we there soon?”

“We’ve arrived,” she said, parking the car in a seemingly deserted street.

I faked a gasp.

“Have you brought me here to rape me?”

“Oh yes absolutely. That’s why I’m wearing these very practical shoes,” she said, showing me her black pumps.

We got out of the car and neared a house that seemed to pump stereo. Wow. From what I’d seen so far Australians sure knew how to party. The house, though nowhere as big as James’ had been, was still large enough to fit the fifty or so people on one floor. Lilah and I walked around for a while, looking for Jeremy, but as we didn’t find either him or the girls, I went to get us a beer.

I had just filled two glasses to the brim when I looked up, and there he was. Calum.


	18. Womanizer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even like Britney Spears but this song is my jam
> 
> Comment and kuddos pls?

CHAPTER 18: Womanizer – Britney Spears

Cami’s POV:

He was talking to another girl, leaning into her with his hand on her hip. Despite the intimate position, he looked frankly annoyed with her, his eyes sending glances around the room as if looking for an escape. She seemed just as irritated, but less in a bored way than plaintive. Probably another girl he’d slighted and then thrown away carelessly. Internally I thanked the girl for giving me a reminder of why I was doing this thing. I would see to it that this boy was brought down.

The poor girl eventually gave up, walking away with a disgusted shake of her head. I bit my lip, debating whether I should go talk to her or not, but opted for negative. Right now, she needed a close friend who would hold her and listen to her. Instead, I grabbed the two beers and headed back to where I’d left Lilah. She was still standing there, but she’d somehow found a cute brunette, and was obviously flirting. Catching my eye, she gave me a see-I’m-doing-what-you-wanted-me-to-please-leave-me-alone-now look, and I looked down at my glasses. Oh well, I guessed I now had two drinks for myself. I was just about to put the first one to my lips when someone stole my second one. Lowering the glass from my mouth, I narrowed my eyes menacingly at Louisa.

“Mine,” I said ferociously.

“Not anymore!”

“How come you’re always the first one I find at parties?”

“I have a badass radar,” Louisa confided.

“Aww thanks,” I started to say, but she carried on as if I hadn’t interrupted.

“That’s how I constantly know where I am.”

Rolling my eyes, I slapped her arm, and she laughed out loud.

“But you know what they say. Birds of the same feather…”

“Are you calling me stark-raven crazy?”

“Your words, not mine,” she shrugged, a mischievous smile at her lips.

“Alright, alright. Do you know where Jeremy is, by the way? I feel like I should congratulate him or something.”

“Oh yeah,” she nodded. “He’s with Jen and Becky and a couple of other jocks. I left because it grosses me out to see my sis flirt with them. Ugh,” she shuddered, closing her eyes as if the image would never leave her mind.

“At least you haven’t ever walked in on her doing the do,” I said, grimacing at the memory.

“What? Oh my god I am so sorry for you. Wait I didn’t know you had an older sister.”

“Her name is Jane, she’s twenty. But yeah, it’s not something I’ll ever forget.”

“Was it with her boyfriend?”

“Hmm-hmm. They broke up though, just before coming down here.”

“Oh. Was it bad?”

“Pretty, yeah. But you know how it is to have a broken-hearted sister…”

“Yeah… Rebecca cried three days straight. It was horrible.”

“I know the feeling,” I sighed.

“You know what, this is not a subject of conversation for a party!” She suddenly yelled out. “Now, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done at a party?”

“I had sex with a stranger.”

“You—what? Tell me more!”

“Okay,” I sighed, though unable to keep the grin from my face. “So, long story short, I was at a party, we were both drunk out of our minds and yeah, shit happened. Best sex ever though. Seriously.”

“Wow, you’re that kind of drunk.”

“Yeah,” I laughed. “It’s pretty bad.”

“Let’s get you drunk then!”

“I can’t,” I pouted. “Mom said no.”

“Aww, mommy’s girl.”

“Not really no.”

“Daddy’s girl?”

“Nope.”

“Bestie’s girl?”

I hesitated before shaking my head.

“I am no one’s girl. I belong only to myself!”

“Woohoo! Independence! We are strong independent women who don’t need no man, no parents, no siblings, no—“

“If you add ‘gay best friend’ to the list I’ll bitch-slap you,” came Jeremy’s bright voice. “Everyone needs a gay best friend.”

“Jer!”

“I finally managed to get out. God, your sister is kissing this boy and I just—ugh.”

“What? You wanted him for yourself?” Louisa teased.

He gaped.

“No! I’ll let you know that I’m not attracted to any of my team mates.”

“How can anyone not be attracted to Calum?” I asked in total disbelief.

“Or Rafaël? Or Vincent? Or Jake?” Louisa added, naming people I didn’t know.

Jeremy looked exasperated.

“That’s not the point, okay? I was just saying I don’t particularly enjoy watching your sister and Lorence eat each other’s faces, so I’m here now.”

“She’s probably just doing that in hopes to make Michael jealous…” Louisa said thoughtfully.

“I hope not,” Jeremy said. “He’s a nice guy. He deserves someone like her.”

“Hey, speaking of nice guys, do you know something about a boy called Ashton?” I asked them. “He works in a video store a few streets down. I think he’s friends with Luke?”

“Oh yeah!” Louisa nodded vigorously. “I’ve never talked to him, but he is cute.”

“Dreamy arms,” Jeremy added.

As we started debating about what was the most attractive part a guy’s body, the music started pumping louder, making it almost impossible to hear each other. Everybody headed to the makeshift dance-floor, that is a huge living-room where the armchairs and tables had been cleared. I cringed at the pop songs and made my way to where the alcohol had been. Surely one shot (or three or four) of vodka wouldn’t do so much harm.

Ten minutes later, I was giggling like crazy, dancing with Lilah (who’d made a magical reappearance) and Louisa. Suddenly the music changed and I stopped in my tracks.

“I’ll be right back!”

I dashed out of the dance-floor, searching for a familiar dark-haired player.

“Calum!” I yelled as I caught sight of him.

He gave me a confused look as I tugged his arm, completely interrupting the conversation he’d been having with a blonde beauty. Fuck her.

“Come on, it’s your song!” I insisted.

His eyes widened and I took the opportunity to drag him to the dance-floor, laughing maniacally. The song was Womanizer by Britney Spears. He stared at me for a bit, as if wondering if I was joking or if I was mad at him or something, but eventually he gave up trying to understand and just danced along. He delicately put his hands on my hips, the touch surprisingly light. Not something I expected of Calum. I continued jumping up and down, grinning at him, and occasionally jabbing my finger against his chest as I sang loudly and probably very-off key.

“Womanizer, wo-wo-womanizer, you you you are, you you are! Womanizer, womanizer!”

He rolled his eyes in a perfect imitation of me but finally gave in and sang along. Of course I couldn’t hear him for all the sound around us, but we still had plenty of fun.

Eventually the song ended and some other crap came on. We both frowned, pouting in total sync. He bent down and spoke in my ear.

“Wait up love, I’ll be right back.” 

Since I didn’t exactly feel like waiting around for him while he flirted with other girls, I tried to cut through the crowd of moving bodies to my friends. I caught the eye of Lilah and waved her over. She had a bottle of something unidentified in her hand.

“What’s that?” I asked.

She shrugged.

“I’m not sure. It’s good though,” she said, nodding vigorously. “And strong.”

Yeah I’d bet, seeing her wide pupils.

“You shouldn’t drink anymore,” I told her and grabbed the bottle. “You’ve drunk enough.”

And with that, I took a swig. Immediately the room around me danced and I braced myself against the wall. Oh. Maybe I’d drunk a little too much as well. Passing her the bottle back, I cracked a grin.

“Mom is not gonna be happy.”

“Probably not!” Lilah giggled before drinking some more. “And now I can’t drive you back haha!”

“That’s a problem,” I agreed with a cheerful laugh.

“The cutie I was talking to dispa—disappeared,” Lilah slurred, pouting.

“I’m sorry.”

I pulled her into my arms clumsily and she started crying a little. Suddenly she raised her head and a huge smile broke out on her face.

“I like that song!”

“I like that song too!” I yelled as I recognized Green Day’s American Idiot.

“I’m glad darling,” came a mocking voice at my ear.

Startled, I let go of Lilah, who stumbled a few steps away. Calum had a dangerous light in his eyes as he held out his hand to me ever so politely. 

“Care to join me for a dance?”


	19. Nanananana

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehehehehe

CHAPTER 19: Nanananana – My Chemical Romance

Calum’s POV

 

I had trouble keeping my laughter in as Cami danced wildly to the song, hollering out the lyrics. I’d thought she was acting crazy before, but it was nothing compared to this. Her already messy bun had strands flying everywhere, her make-up was smudged, her dress had come up higher around her thighs…she looked absolutely stunning. Her eyes were shining like blue fire in the dimness of the room, the smile on her lips so big I was afraid she was gonna crack her face. I thought she’d have to tire at some point but no, she jumped around like a spitfire, waving her arms around her head.

She pouted as she saw that I wasn’t singing along and poked me harshly in the ribs. I let out a gasp and she glared at me. Jesus woman, calm down. I had to admit, when I’d asked for some more punky music, I had no idea she would react this way. Can’t say I wasn’t enjoying it though. She looked so free.

“Are you ready for something really cheesy?” I asked her in between-songs.

She nodded, eyes bright as she looked up at me.

“You’re an American idiot.”

She started to frown but I cut off all reply.

“But you know what? That’s okay, because you’re my American idiot.”

Her head fell backwards as she burst out laughing, then looked back up and narrowed her eyes at me, shaking her head.

“I’m not your anything! I belong only to myself.”

“You’re my dance partner,” I shrugged, making her laugh again.

I liked it when she laughed. Why had I ignored her this whole week again?

“You’re so stupid Cal,” she said with a shit-eating grin.

The warmth and honeyed tone in her voice as she said the nickname nearly made my heart skip. Ah yes, that’s why. She leaned her face towards me until her lips were barely an inch from mine. On impulse, I bent down to erase all distance, but she swiftly placed a finger against my mouth.

“I’m a bit tipsy,” she whispered brightly, like it was a secret she’d been wanting to share with me forever.

It was adorable. But the cute moment broke when she suddenly broke away from my light hold on her waist.

“That’s MCR!” She shouted.

And indeed, the music started blaring Nananana.

“Drugs give me drugs, give me drugs!” She yelled out and then said lyrics that I was 100% sure weren’t the right ones.

Deciding to just go with the flow, I jumped along with her and belted out the real ones.

“Love give me love, give me love, I don’t need it but I’ll take what I want from your heart and I’ll keep it, in a bag, in a box, put an X on the floor, give me more, give me more, give me more!”

Apparently she was sober enough to slap my chest. Harshly too. Maybe I was too convincing? Oops. But then her eyes caught mine in a stare-down as she sang the lyrics, and I felt every thought fly out of my head. I was lost to the moment, to her eyes, to her.

So when she shouted ‘Kiss me you animal!’…I did.

One of my arms slipped around her waist while the other went to her cheek, pulling her mouth harshly to mine. She was kissed me back fervently; her arms going around my neck and pulling at my hair in a way that made shivers run down my spine. I let my hand fall from her waist and move down the smooth material of the dress to her hip, and she gasped lightly against me. I took the opportunity to deepen the kiss; she tasted of honey and lemon and vodka and god—I never wanted this to stop. We were making out in the middle of the dance floor but somehow no one was paying attention to us, just like the world fell away around us. I pulled my mouth away from me and trailed small, fiery kisses down her neck as she gasped for breath and tangled her fingers in my hair. I was drowning in the scent of her, the feeling of her satin-like skin. It drove me mad—

And suddenly she pushed me away. I took a step back, completely disoriented, to see her pointing an accusatory finger at me.

“I hate you, Calum Hood.”

Ouch.

“You are a pretentious bastard who uses girls for his own pleasure then throws them away like they’re toys. And I,” she spoke fiercely, her eyes blazing, “will not be your toy.”

Double-ouch. I blinked, shocked by her vehemence. She was right, of course. But somehow the words hurt me. No, not the words themselves, more the fact that it was her who’d said them. As if she really meant something to me. As if… I cut off the thought before it could form fully, and sighed. Man, my attempts to hide from her had not worked in my favor.

Cami turned on her heels and disappeared in the crowd. Shit. Somehow guilt hit me now, though it’d been nowhere to find earlier, when Linda – who I had indeed ‘thrown away like a toy’ – had cried and demanded explanations. Maybe one day I’d need to get my head analyzed. By a real therapist, not the kind of Dr. Phil shit   
Cami had tried to pull on me a week or so ago. But for now, a drink was in order.

...

I woke up with splitting headache, and didn’t dare open my eyes for the fear of what light would do to them. Groaning, I turned and buried my head in a pillow. Next to me, someone let out a soft sound, like they were waking up. That’s when I became aware that I was naked. Oh. Thank god I’d made my mom no promises about being back the same night. I wondered fleetingly who it could be next to me. Immediately I ruled out Grace; she hadn’t been at a party and she would never have said yes if I’d called her up wasted and horny. Obviously Cami or any of her friends were a no-no. So, a stranger? Or one of the usuals?

Whoever it was, I needed out. Knowing my tendencies to sleep over after getting drunk, it was probably over 1pm. Truly a wonder that naked-girl-next-to-me’s parents hadn’t barged in the room and yelled out in horror yet. They might be away, of course, but I didn’t exactly feel like sticking around and finding out. Just as I tried to get out of the bed, my eyes still squeezed shut and my head pounding, her arm slipped around my bare chest and pulled me closer.

For a second, I entertained the thought of staying a bit. My head was killing me, I needed sleep, the bed was comfortable… With a sigh, I pushed her arm aside and stumbled out of bed.

It turned out that finding my clothes with closed eyes wasn’t that easy, and after a few minutes I gave up. Brightness assaulted my senses and I flinched hard. Squinting, I noticed my boxers lying on the floor. I sluggishly made my way over to them and put them on. Quite annoyingly, the rest of my outfit was nowhere to be found. I opened the girl’s wardrobe and took out a pair of stretchy black jeggings. I wriggled into them, and they fit me comfortably. Thank god I had perfect legs. And also thank god I was used to stealing my sister’s pants. I’d just have to find a way to return these. As for my tee-shirt, I gave up. I had lost count of the number of tees and tank-tops I’d lost at girls’ places, and no one questioned why I was constantly in need of new ones anymore. Plus, any day was a good day to make girls in the street hyperventilate.

I was about to list away when the girl’s voice cut me short.

“Calum? Why are you leaving?”

With a jolt, I turned around and recognized the girl as Linda. What the fuck? I knew I was persuasive, but her I hadn’t expected to give in a second time. I guessed my drunk self was even more talented at convincing girls. Then again, if I’d been sober I wouldn’t even have wanted to sleep with her again. It wasn’t like she was especially good or anything.

“My parents aren’t here,” she added. “You can stay.”

Her make-up was faded and smudged, her hair a complete mess (I tended to do that oops). At the sight, I subconsciously I ran a hand through my own hair. 

“I gotta go. Yesterday was a mistake and it won’t ever happen again,” I told her monotonously.

“You said that last time too,” she pointed out.

I had slowly backed towards the door, and putting my hands behind me, I started searching for the doorknob.

“I was right last time too.”

“But it did happen again,” she insisted childishly.

“But it won’t anymore.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“You’re really not helping my headache,” I groaned.

“You’re a real jerk, you know that?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve been told. Good day,” I said, and tumbled out of the room.

Jesus, she was clingy. Slightly remembering the place from last time I was here, I found my way to the bathroom and downed a couple of painkillers. I watered my hands and tried to style my hair a bit before leaving the apartment. I barely heard the angry ‘Calum!’ that came from behind the door as I hurried down the stairs of her building.

The sun was shining outside, making me cringe. I looked around, a little lost. How had we gotten here? Yesterday I’d gotten to the party directly from the game with my teammates, so Betty was still at home. There was no way we’d driven here, we must have been way to drunk. I had blurry memories of making out in the backseat of a car. Had we hitched a ride with someone? Still feeling like I was gonna throw up any minute, I reached for my phone in my jean pocket—and then I remembered, I fucking didn’t have it. It must still be in my own pants, which were lost somewhere. Fuck fuck fuck. How the hell was I supposed to explain this to my mom? How was I supposed to get home? 

And that, kids, is why having a one-night stand while completely wasted is a bad idea. I was thoroughly fucked. With a huge sigh, I started walking down the street. This was going to be a long day.

...

When I finally managed to get home, an hour and a half later, Michael was waiting for me in my bedroom. His hair was now snow-white, sticking up everywhere, and his huge smile had his green eyes gleaming. Ugh. 

“Just seeing you so happy makes me wanna puke,” I dragged the words as I tiredly walked towards my bed.

“Aw come on, cheer up mate!” Mike exclaimed.

I whimpered and put my hands to my ear, throwing myself face-down on my bed.

“Stop being so fucking loud.”

“I just thought you’d be happy to know I have your phone…”

I could just imagine the self-satisfied smile at his lips.

“What?”

“Rafaël had it for some reason.”

“What about my pants?”

“Aren’t those yours?”

“Nah, I stole them from Linda.”

“Linda? The same Linda? How drunk were you last night?” He asked incredulously.

“Enough that I forgot my favorite jeans and phone somewhere…”

“And your shirt,” Mike noted cleverly. “See, this is what happens when you go to a party without me.”

“You don’t even hold your liquor as well as me,” I pointed out, finally raising my head to give him a come-on-don’t-pretend-you’re-the-mature-one-here look.

“That’s irrelevant,” Mike shrugged carelessly, throwing me a deceptively sweet smile.

“Whatever,” I sighed. “Can I have my phone?”

He handed it to me and I checked my messages quickly. There were a few missed calls from Linda, a message from Mike asking where I was and two from my mom, asking when I was coming back and telling me she and my dad would be away for the weekend.

“Who let you in?” I asked Mike in confusion.

“Your sister.”

My eyebrows shot up. I didn’t even know Mali had come back from the university. Then again, come to think of it, she did that every weekend. I let out a tired sigh and rested my head on Mike’s lap, who messed up my hair ruefully.

“Hey, I brought the new video game I told you about,” he grinned. “Wanna play?”

“You play, I’ll just lie here and watch.”

So we spent the afternoon like this, him playing and cursing at the screen while I lay on the bed, head on his lap as I tried to get rid of my hangover. Mali had only checked up on us once, and had exploded into laughter as she saw how out of it I was. Still, she was nice enough to make us some pasta before disappearing back up in her room.

“I love you Mali,” I called out as I heard her door close with a bang.

“Fuck off bro!”

I looked down on my lap and Mike ruffled my hair again.

“Don’t worry, Cal. I love you.”

I made a face at him.

“Do I look like a give a shit? You white-haired weirdo.”

Mike immediately put a hand to his hair and gave me a heart-melting pout, eyes wide.

“You don’t like it?”

“You look like a Santa alf.”

“That’s good, though? They’re cute, right?”

“Sure…”

“Well, I like it, so shut up,” Mike told me, obviously a little upset.

“Aww I was kidding, I love it,” I cooed, giving him a hug.

“Really?”

“No. Now give me a controller so I can beat your ass at this game.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Malum is bae <3


	20. Do I wanna know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and kuddos if you like pls thank you much love

CHAPTER 20: Do I wanna know – Arctic Monkeys 

Cami’s POV:

 

“No! Monopoly will tear us apart!” Jane exclaimed dramatically. “Remember last time?”

My mom raised her eyebrows and nodded, changing her mind instantly.

“Jane’s right. The rug is new, and I don’t really want anyone spilling drinks on it.”

“It was my head,” Jane pointed out.

My brother shrugged.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have showed off so much. Then it wouldn’t have happened.”

My sister narrowed her eyes at him.

“You little—“

“No cursing!” My mom cut her off.

“Fine, whatever. But we’re not playing Monopoly,” she said fiercely.

My dad and I exchanged saddened glances.

“Oh well…I rather enjoyed winning last time,” I sighed.

“You did not win!” My brother exclaimed in outrage.

“But,” I continued imperturbably, “if you guys all insist, we can always play something else.”

“Thank you,” Jane said drily.

“The question is: what?”

“Uno?”

“Nah…”

“Memory?”

“I suck at that,” I pouted, and my mom nodded her agreement.

“Perfect!” Jeremy smiled. “Memory it is then!”

“What?” My mom and I protested at the same time, but everyone ignored us.

I looked at my former accomplice, dad, but he shook his head at my pleading look.

“Nope. Memory sounds even better than Monopoly. Better chance of winning.”

“Ugh,” I told my mom, “we have been abandoned.”

Fifteen minutes later, I was sorely losing, and my dad and brother were fighting for the last few pieces. Turning to Jane, I asked her about the university again.  
When I’d woken up yesterday, she was already home. Then again, I’d woken up really late after that crazy night. Jenifer had given both Lilah and I a ride home after Calum kissed me (shit shit shit), but it was still way past midnight. Since I’d respected my mom’s rules (I wasn’t that drunk, just tipsy), I’d been left alone to sleep all I wanted. We’d had some sister time during the afternoon, walking around Sydney. She’d told me about the different classes she was taking and the friends she’d made, and I’d done the same.

Now, she was telling me that she’d planned to meet up with a new friend of hers, and invited me along.

“Sure!” I grinned. “What is she like?”

“She’s the sweetest thing ever! Funny and smart and beautiful—“

I laughed at the friend-crush my sister obviously had. No judging though, I’d been there.

“Looking forward to meet her then.”

Once the game was over (to no-one’s surprise, my brother won), Jane and I informed the parents of our plans and went out the door.

...

Jane was right. Mali was absolutely adorable, not to mention the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen. Oh my god. We took a coffee and joked around for some time, complaining about boys, work and life in general. Eventually she invited us back to her place.

“My brother’s there, but who cares, right?”

I couldn’t argue with that, and followed her and Jane to a house on the side of Sydney. It was roughly the same size as ours, which was impressive considering it was situated close to the center of the city. Mali opened the door. It led directly to a living-room with a huge TV-screen and large leather couches, on which lounged a boy around my age.

My stomach fell. Are you serious? But of course. I should’ve guessed. There was probably only one family in the entire world with such amazing genes.  
He lifted his head from his phone as he heard us enter, and immediately his gaze fell on me.

“Are you stalking me?”

I let out a deep, deep sigh while Mali looked at us both questioningly.

“Do you guys know each other?”

“No,” I answered just as he said ‘yes’.

He raised an eyebrow at me.

“So we work on a project together in English, go to the same parties, have gone on a date together and kissed a few times, but we don’t know each other?”

My mouth fell open at how he openly said this in front of both our sisters. Mali seemed to be in an extreme state of shock.

“You went on a date?”

Calum rolled his eyes.

“Mali don’t pretend to be horrified, you know Grace and I don’t give a fuck about each other.”

“I know. But you went on a date?”

Calum groaned and sat up from where he’d been lying on the sofa.

“Will you lay off?”

“No. How the fuck? I don’t—you never go on dates.”

“It was more like a joke-date anyway,” I said.

It had been, to be honest. He hadn’t even known it was one, and had only accepted the title because it meant we could kiss. Speaking of which, I still didn’t know how I felt about this whole kissing business. I refused to think about it though, because Jesus—the boy had skills. Thank god I’d broken away in time, because I didn’t know whether I would have stopped him if we went any further. Well, then I’d insulted him a bit for good measure. Served him right for sweeping me off my feet when I hadn’t asked for it. The plan was I seduce him, not the other way around!

“Yeah, that’s it,” Calum nodded, seeming pleased. “A joke-date. Now fuck off.”

Mali rolled her eyes at his attitude and ruffled his hair as she walked by him. He flipped her off and then ignored my sister and I studiously as he went right back to his phone.

Yep, I’d been right to push him away.

The three of us girls talked some more in Mali’s room, until Jane randomly mentioned that she loved cooking.

“You do?” Mali exclaimed. “You’re saving my life oh my god!”

“Um…why?”

“Because neither my bro nor me can cook for shit and our parents are away. They gave us no money for food because the fridge is full.”

“Oh, do you want me to cook for you today?”

“Please!”

“Sure, I could even teach you!”

They hurried back downstairs, and I followed them warily. Suddenly the hangout seemed less interesting. I’d had enough cooking lessons from my dad to know that 1., it was boring, and 2., I was shit at it. Biting my lip, I walked back into the living room, leaving the girls to the kitchen. Calum was still sprawled on the sofa, and he simply patted a spot next to him as he saw me. I sat down, bringing my knees to my chest, and met his curious gaze. I hadn’t noticed what he was wearing before, but certainly did now. His low-cut grey sweats showed a bit of golden skin at his hips, where his band tee had ridden up. A smirk curled at Calum’s lips as he noticed me staring, but I spoke up before he could give me one of his snarky comments.

“I didn’t know you had a sister.”

He shrugged, uncaring.

“Didn’t know you had one either.”

“Yeah, I guess we don’t know much about each other.”

A crooked smile lit up his face.

“Wanna play truth or dare?”

“No. I don’t wanna know what kind of things you make people do as dares.”

He chuckled lowly, the husky sound causing a shiver to run down my spine.

“Fair enough. Truth or truth?”

I smiled.

“Okay, but I start. What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue. Favorite band?”

“All Time Low. Favorite song?”

“Drown by Bring Me The Horizon. Favorite subject at school?”

“English. Most hated subject?”

“Every single fucking one of them.”

“Most hated subject?” I repeated.

“French I guess. Favorite movie?”

“Inception. Dogs or cats?”

“Dogs. Do you hate me?”

I blinked, surprised at the sudden change of tone.

“No.” There wasn’t a trace of hesitation in my voice. “Why do you keep fucking new girls?”

“Because I get bored easily. Why do you love motorcycles?”

“Because they make me feel alive. Why did you kiss me?”

“Because I wanted to. Why did you pull away?”

“Because—“ The words caught in my throat as I suddenly realized how close we were.

He’d sat up when we started playing and we’d been subconsciously leaning against each other, so that I was now half in his arms. He seemed to make the same observation and swiftly got to his feet.

“What are the others doing?” He asked.

“They’re in the kitchen. Making lunch I think.”

His eyes lit up.

“Ooh food.”

And just like that, he left me and headed to the kitchen. Not even a minute later, exclamations came from it and I distinctly heard the words ‘fucker’ ‘you little brat’ and ‘get lost’. Calum waltzed back into the living-room, carrying a plate with bacon and some salad on it. He started eating the bacon, putting the plate between us on the couch. He picked up a salad leaf and handed it to me.

“You’re a girl, right?”

“Wow. Such powers of observations you have,” I said drily.

“You like green,” he added, as if the fact that I was a girl made it impossible for me to want anything else than salad.

Louisa would’ve killed him on the spot. As it was, I was vegetarian, so I just took the leaf from his hands.

“Do you wanna watch a movie?” He asked, pointing at the huge screen with his chin. “Mike’s coming over later, but we can start something.”

I held back a grimace at the thought of Mike, the boy who had hurt Rebecca so. But in a way, Calum was the same, and here I was, hanging out with him casually. What a hypocrite I made.

“Sure,” I said carelessly.

Instead of taking an eternity trying to pick one, Calum went over to where he kept them and flung them all on the floor.

“Close your eyes and take one.”

I did as commanded, and came up with The Blues Brothers. Calum had an approving smile and put it in the DVD player.

“Are you not gonna put all of these back to their place?” I asked, motioning towards the pile of DVDs on the floor.

“Are you?”

“No!”

He shrugged.

“Then shut up and come watch the movie.”

Rolling my eyes, I sat next to him. For good measure, I decided to ignore him. He wanted me to shut up? Fine, I wouldn’t say anything. Setting my jaw, I hugged my knees to my chest, rested my head on them and stared at the screen.

Just like I’d expected, it took less than five minutes for him to send me glances, which became more and more frequent as the minutes ticked by. I had to hide a smile. He was like a dog. Craved attention. On cue, he slightly nudged me, but I didn’t move a muscle. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him pout. 

For two people who hated each other, Luke and him were strangely alike. Between their music taste, their band tees and ripped skinnies, their love of food, their foolishness, their constant need of attention and affection… It was crazy. And now he was pouting. While Luke’s pout often made me coo on the inside, Calum’s made my stomach do something weird. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Best make that pout go away then, I decided. It was a question of sanity. Picking one of the cushions from the couch, I put it on Calum’s lap and rested my head on it as I lied down. He didn’t say anything and kept his eyes on the screen, but I could see a small, satisfied smile forming at his lips.

Not a word was uttered from either of us until our sisters came back from the kitchen, carrying food. They had very different reactions as they saw us like that on the couch. While my sister had a knowing smile and said something like ‘aww’, Mali stared at her brother furiously, murder in her eyes. Okay…  
Obviously ignoring his sister’s look, Calum paused the movie and cracked a grin.

“I was just beginning to feel hungry again!”

Needless to say that the plate of bacon had been polished half-an-hour ago. I sat up from my comfortable position and yawned, stretching, before going after the two girls, who’d gone to an adjacent room. Unsurprisingly, it turned out to be a dining room. We had just finished setting the table when Calum arrived, followed by a white-haired boy.

“You changed your hair,” I said dumbly as I recognized Mike.

“And Captain Obvious strikes again,” Calum said, rolling his eyes.

“Fuck off,” I muttered.

Thankfully I didn’t seat next to either of them as we ate, instead engaging in a conversation with Mali and my sister about Clueless and Mean Girls. We were arguing about which one was best (Clueless obviously) when Calum suddenly interrupted his sister mid-argument.

“They’re both terrible!”

We all stopped talking and turned to him in shock and confusion. He grimaced.

“There’s no plot, the characters are all dumb and insufferable. It’s cheesy as fuck.”

Before the room could explode in angered protests, Mike and Calum got up from their chairs and left the table. 

“Right, it’s not like I could use help clearing the table!” Mali called out in annoyance.

“You have the girls!” Calum said back carelessly. “Should be good at this type of things, right?”

Our mouths fell open in perfect sync, and immediately I ran into the living-room where the boys were already getting ready to play video-games. Calum looked up, and had a small, sarcastic smile as he saw my furious expression.

“Are you here to tell me I should help my sister like a nice little brother?”

“No. I’m here to tell you you’re a misogynist pig!” I spat.

His eyebrows shot up.

“That’s a big word.”

“Too complicated for you?”

“What does it mean?”

“It means get back in the kitchen you sexist fucker!”

He stared at me for a second or so before turning to his white-haired friend, who’d simply been observing us in silence the whole time.

“Come on Mike,” he said, “we’ve got some kitchen duty to do.”

Michael rolled his eyes but followed Calum into the kitchen, where they put away the dishes and remaining food. Mali gave me an impressed look as she saw the boys come in, to which I responded with a self-satisfied smile. Once we were done, my sister hugged Mali good-bye, and I was about to do the same when Calum hooked an arm around waist.

“Nope, I’m kidnapping you.”

“What?”

I shot a confused look at my sister as he dragged me away. She simply grinned and waved at me before leaving the house. I just had the time to see Mali narrowing her eyes at her brother before Mike’s lanky body blocked my vision as he followed us back into the living-room. Calum half-pushed, half-dropped me on the couch, and I let out an outraged sound. Both boys laughed and settled on the couch to my left.

“What is even going on?” I sighed as Calum took hold of the remote and turned the TV on.

Calum ignored this and instead spread out his hands to both of us.

“Mike, this is Cami. Cami, Mike.”

The boy sent me an angelic smile, which I would have fallen for if not for the glint of mischievousness in his green eyes. Seeing his open, cute face though, I could suddenly understand why Rebecca had trouble getting rid of her feelings for him. I raised my eyebrows and regarded him coolly.

“You hurt one of my best friends.”

He smiled again, innocently, and handed me a controller.

“Wanna play?”

...

Half and hour later, the three of us were immerged in the most intense game I’d ever been part of. I had never played this game before, but apparently the other boys hadn’t been at it very long either, because we kept discovering new things. It was a mess of yells, cheers, curses and threats.

“What the fuck?” Calum yelled out, the Australian clang in his voice more pronounced than ever. “Mike, don’t kill me please!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I checked out the boys’ parts of the screen and saw that Mike was holding Calum at gunpoint.

“You’ve killed me like three times already!” Mike protested loudly.

“But you love me, right?”

“You killed me!”

“Please! I’m so close to winning…”

While they argued, I switched to attack mode and listed in behind them. Taking out my machine gun, I slowly took aim. Then, just as Calum stopped looking at the screen – probably to give Mike his best puppy eyes – I shot him down. Both boys whirled their heads back to the screen at the loud sound, but it was too late by then. I ran towards Mike and headshot!

They gasped so loud in horror and disbelief that I exploded in laughter.

“I wrecked you boys!”

Mike threw his controller away and turned to face me, his eyes murderous.

“You are going to pay for this.”

Now, I was used to threats from my brother, but getting them from a hair-dyed, pierced, tattooed guy over 6 feet tall…not the same. Swallowing hard, I managed to put a smile on my face and swiftly got up from the sofa. He did the same, Calum following suit. Oh great. Ow I had two boys to worry about. I smirked at them flippantly and raised an eyebrow.

“What are you waiting for?” I asked, my voice filled with arrogance and mockery.

And then I turned on my heels and ran.

“Mali!” I cried as I tried to orientate myself in the house.

She had to be in her room. Where was the staircase again? Behind, the boys were gaining on me. Shit shit shit shit. Oh, there! I started to sprint towards the stairs.

“Help!” I squealed as someone tackled me from behind.

I fell to the ground, the boy’s body weight crushing me. He removed himself from me and I wriggled in his grip enough to turn around and realize it was Calum. Of course, he was always so quick on the field. He was holding himself over me, his arms flexed on both sides of my head. He was panting almost as hard as me, eyes gleaming with anticipated amusement at the torture that was to come.

“Fuck,” I cursed breathlessly.

He laughed and I couldn’t help but stare. It wasn’t one of those ironic laughs he usually had, but a real, full-on one that illuminated his whole face, forming adorable crinkles at his almost closed eyes. When he finally stopped laughing, his head bowed down to me and some of his dark hair fell in his still-grinning face. I had to stop myself from pushing it back.

“Am I interrupting something?” Mike called out in amusement. “Should I just go now?”

I blushed as I suddenly realized how this must look. Calum was hovering over me, his face only a few inches from mine. As he made the same observation, his eyes flickered to my lips, and I felt my mouth go dry.

“Alright then, I’ll leave you two to it!”

“Don’t be stupid,” I rolled my eyes, placing a hand on Calum’s chest and pushing him away.

He complacently rolled away and I got to my feet, my heartbeat still drumming loudly in my ears. Mike looked like he wanted to add something, but I gave him a glare that shut him up. 

“Are you guys up for another game?” I asked to change the subject.

Still lounging on the ground, a hand on his hip in a sassy pose, Calum nodded. Mike agreed.

“We need to get revenge.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mean can you really blame Cami for giving in to Mike's puppy eyes and adorable smile??


	21. Save me a spark

CHAPTER 21: Save me a spark – Sleeping With Sirens

Cami’s POV: 

“So how was your morning?” Luke asked me as he popped another fry in his mouth.

“Good. Boring. The usual,” I shrugged before trying to steal one of his fries.

“Hey! You have your own,” Luke protested, pushing my hand away for the fifty-seventh time.

“But yours look better!” I complained. “Why do other people’s fries always look better?”

“They don’t, you’re just weird.”

I stuck out my tongue to him, which he ignored.

“How was your weekend?” I asked him instead.

“Good. Boring. The usual,” he imitated me in a girlish-voice.

“Hey! I do not sound like that!”

“Sure you do.”

“No I don’t!”

He rolled his eyes dramatically at me before stealing one of my fries.

“Seriously?”

“You’re right. They do look better.”

“See! Stop making me feel stupid when you know I’m always right.”

“Should we exchange then?” He asked, looking at my plate.

“No way! You have like, four left.”

“That’s cause you ate them all.”

“Ugh, fine,” I groaned, pushing my plate towards him. “I’m not even hungry anyway.”

He looked at me a few seconds, probably to determine whether something was going on or if I was just being stupid. From the look on his face, I concluded he’d picked option one.

“What’s up?” He asked, his blue eyes a bit worried.

“Nothing,” I replied innocently.

“Nothing?”

I shrugged and bit my lip, the humor draining from my face.

“I don’t know, I’m just feeling tired.”

Luke raised an eyebrow, obviously not buying my story.

“Spill.”

“Okay, it’s um… I kinda feel bad about the whole Calum thing.”

He blinked, taken aback.

“Oh? Do you wanna call it off?” I could hear the surprise and slight disappointment in his voice, but I knew he would agree with whatever I wanted to do.

“No! No, it’s not that… I know he deserves it, it’s just my sister’s friends with his sister… And I don’t know, I’m not sure I’m the right person to do it. Like, yesterday I kinda hung out with Mike and him because I was visiting my sister’s friend. I didn’t know he’d be here. And I feel like I’ve already betrayed this whole plan and Rebecca because, like, I had fun. I enjoyed hanging out with them.”

I met Luke’s eyes worriedly, afraid that he’d look disgusted or disappointed, but to my surprise, he really didn’t.

“Look,” he said. “I can’t stand those guys because we have a feud. I have never been able to look past the whole player thing, and then I got involved and things got worse. But if you see any good in them, it’s okay. I’m sure they’re not rotten through and through,” he added with the ghost of a smile, “otherwise no girl would ever fall for them. If you have fun, that’s good for you. I want you to enjoy this whole thing. Just remember that when it comes to it, it’s survival of the fittest. Either you’ll break his heart, or he’ll break yours. That’s what it will come to. But in the meantime,” he shrugged, “have all the fun you want.”

I pursed my lips, considering his words.

“Yeah. Yeah you’re right. So I didn’t break your trust by hanging out with them?” I asked once again, just to be sure.

“Nope!” Luke said gladly. “Don’t worry, it’s gonna work. In the end, this horrible deal with Rebecca will have a good effect.”

“If good things come out of bad things, does that mean bad things come out of good things?” I wondered.

Luke shrugged.

“Well, you did come out of your mother.”

I gasped.

“You fucker!”

“You know me.”

“I am out of here!” I said dramatically, waving my hands around.

“Love you!” Luke called out as I left the cafeteria.

I responded with a middle finger. I made my way to English. Since Calum had been absent this morning in French, I didn’t expect him to be here now, and sat next to a random boy I almost recognized from one of the parties and whose partner was also missing. He gave me a bland smile and focused his attention back on his phone. Oh well. The teacher took her time organizing her desk before telling us to get in pairs and continue working on the project. Sighing, I took up my stuff. I was about to analyze the tenth chapter of the book when someone’s voice in my ear made me jump.

“Replaced me already, huh?” 

I looked up to see Calum smirking down at me. He tsked.

“Really, I would have expected more from you. Traitor.”

“Speak for yourself,” I retorted. “I’m not the one who shot me in the back after making an alliance to take out Michael.”

He shrugged, smiling superiorly.

“Survival of the fittest, darling.”

His words echoed strangely with Luke’s, and I couldn’t help but think back to what my best friend had said. It was alright to have fun, but I couldn’t let myself fall prey to the game. Problem with that was that Calum was probably the best goddamn player I’d ever met.

Speaking of which, having succeeded to make the other boy find another seat, his hand played with my loose hair as he bent over the book. I slapped it away and he pouted, though he didn’t take his eyes off the book. 

“Here,” he pointed. “It shows the imbalance between the two classes.”

I smiled and highlighted the sentence. His hand found its way back to my hair, twirling a few strands between his slim fingers.

“Stop doing that.”

“Doing what? Here,” he said again, having turned the page.

Sighing, I tried to focus on the work. But damn it, he was distracting. If he wasn’t playing with my hair, he was slightly gracing my arm, or he was leaning in too close and I could feel waves of heat coming off of him, or he was sending me an adorable smile, or… Just ugh. Damn him and his perfect everything.  
Wait, what?

Before I could make sense of my own thoughts, the bell rung. It felt like emerging from a dream. A strange, a bit dangerous but oh-so-alluring dream.

“Hey, do you wanna work some more tonight?” Calum asked. “I know I cancelled the last meet-up, and the library’s open to 8.”

I didn’t know what was more shocking: that Calum was offering to work or that he knew the library’s closing time. But I wisely didn’t mention any of it and just nodded. He was in a surprisingly complacent mood today, and I didn’t wanna ruin it with a snarky remark.

The double hour of Physics went as slowly as usual, and I couldn’t help the intense urge to bump my forehead against the desk repeatedly. Only Jenifer’s calming hand kept me from jumping out of the window. It was dreadful. I wasn’t necessarily bad at Physics, actually I’d had a surprisingly good grade last week, but the teacher was incredibly boring. I wondered if she did it on purpose.

When it was finally over, I made my way to the building where the library was. To my surprise, Calum was already there. At my surprised expression, he cracked a smile.

“My teacher was absent.”

“Really?”

“Nope, I ditched.”

“How are you even still at this school?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

“The school couldn’t exactly throw out their star-player, could they?” He smirked.

“Soccer again?”

“Football,” he corrected sternly.

“Whatever. Where do you wanna sit?”

The library was almost empty but Calum still guided me to one of the tables in the very back.

“Well that’s not suspicious at all,” I grinned.

“I just don’t wanna be seen here. Reputation to maintain and all.”

“Right,” I grinned. “Can’t be seen with the American girl.”

“What? No. I just can’t be seen in the library.”

“Yeah, that’s right. You’ve got a reputation as a lazy asshole to keep. And come to think of it, I’m actually the one whose reputation would be tarnished if I was seen with you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Do you honestly think everyone falls for your beautiful relationship with Grace?”

“I was hoping so,” he shrugged.

“Honestly dude. Maybe the people who aren’t in our grade fall for it. But if you want people to believe you guys are in a serious exclusive relationship, you should stop flirting with every girl in your class.”

Calum made a face.

“But where’s the fun in that?”

“I don’t know. Where’s the fun in having a fake girlfriend?”

He zoomed in on me and a grin formed at his lips.

“Are you saying this because you’re jealous? Do you want me for yourself?”

I barked out a harsh laugh.

“No. We’re not even friends at this point.”

His smile disappeared.

“We’re not, are we?”

“I don’t know…” Suddenly I felt like taking back my words. “I mean we did go on that one date.”

“Yeah. But then again you did say it was a fake date,” he said, his voice devoid of emotions.

I bit my lip. Somehow I didn’t like where this conversation was going.

“I was just trying to help you out with your sister.”

“Oh, so it was a real date?” He asked ironically.

“I don’t know! I had fun, you had fun, we kissed. It’s whatever you wanna call it, I don’t care! Can we just work now?”

He didn’t answer and just took a notepad and a pen out of his bag. I let out a sigh and opened the book where we’d left it. We worked in silence, pointing out different things to one another and writing down what we’d use in the presentation. The silence felt heavy to me, as if we had unresolved issues between us, and it bothered me. After almost half-an-hour, I dropped my pen on the table. Calum looked up at the sound, still expressionless.

“We’re friends, okay?” I said a bit too harshly. “It’s weird because you irritate me a lot, but you’re funny and you can be nice. I don’t give a shit about the maybe-date, but I enjoy hanging out with you.”

“Okay.”

Okay? That’s all he had to say? I felt like a ridiculous, over-attached girl as he simply shrugged and got back to work. Sighing irritably, I bent back over the book. For some reason, I felt hyperaware of him, of his every movement, of his silence. I got on my nerves to the point where I couldn’t concentrate and he was the only one doing anything. Eventually, he must have felt how strangely I was acting because his eyes finally snapped to mine. He pursed his lips nervously.

“I don’t do friends, Cami. The only girl I’ve ever been friends with is Grace, and it’s more of a business relationship between us. And I still fuck her.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I don’t know what you want from me.” For the first time ever, Calum’s chocolate brown eyes were bare, and I could plainly see the confusion written in them. “You can’t expect me to be good at this. I…I can try but I don’t know, okay?”

“Okay,” I said gently. “You can start by giving me a lift home?”

The corner of his mouth curled.

“I knew it. I knew you were just in it for Betty.”

I sighed dramatically.

“You have found me out!”

He grinned, and I answered with a smile of my own.

“See? It’s easy,” I said.

He looked at me a bit and nodded.

“Let’s go.”

We’d surprisingly gotten a lot done, which was good considering the due date was in a week. We just had to go through the last few chapters and organize everything, which, at this rate, would only take around two hours. I followed Calum out of the building and across the parking to where he’d left Betty.

“She’s so pretty it hurts my heart,” I pouted.

“Yeah,” he said, so low I didn’t know if he was talking to me or to himself. “She is.”

“Can I drive?” I asked with a sweet smile.

His eyes snapped to mine, wide with horror.

“Are you mad? Of course not!”

“Please!”

“Absolutely not!”

“But I thought you wanted to try to be friends,” I pouted.

“Right now I want to try to stay alive!”

“Hey, I can drive motorcycles! I used to have one!”

He rolled his eyes at my apparent stupidity.

“Was it anywhere near this in terms of size, power and beauty?” He asked in a ‘duh’ voice.

“Um…”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’m driving.”

He handed me the same helmet as before and shrugged his own on.

“You’re no fun,” I muttered a last time before climbing on after him.

This time, I immediately held on to his waist, enjoying how his muscles momentarily tensed under my touch. Hmm, abs. Then I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity. Still, I couldn’t help grinning widely as Calum turned the key in the ignition and the motorcycle sprung to life. It sent an electrifying feeling down my spine and my stomach clenched in anticipation of the ride. It was like being on the top of a rollercoaster and looking down at the crazy descent you’re about to do. Then Betty roared and surged forward, knocking the breath out of my chest. Calum sped down the streets to my home; the ride didn’t even last five minutes. I got off the motorcycles and he followed suit. He helped me take off my helmet, and I tried not to feel his fingers working at my throat.

“Calum?” I asked once he had taken off my helmet.

“Yeah?”

“You weren’t here in French.”

“I know.”

“Do you…do you need tutoring?”

He had taken off his helmet, and his hair flew in the warm wind messily as he frowned at me lightly.

“Need? Absolutely. Want? I don’t know.”

“If you want anything, you can call me alright?” I smiled. “It wouldn’t bother me.”

“Okay.”

“Well, um…thanks for the ride?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

It was a bit awkward as neither of us knew how to say goodbye. Finally, I decided to just fuck it and went for a hug. I felt Calum freeze in my embrace, which made hugging him even weirder considering our height difference. I was just about to move away when his body finally relaxed and his arms went around me, holding me tight. I exhaled softly, enjoying the warmth and softness of his lean body. I stepped away from his hold before I melted completely in him and threw a bright smile on my face.

“Hugging. That’s what friends do.”

“Right.”

His dark eyes were searching, and I shuffled a bit with my feet.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” I asked.

He shrugged. 

“Maybe. Have a good night.”

“Yeah. You too.”

I slowly went to my porch as he put his helmet back on and sat on his motorcycle. I had to refrain myself from waving as he brought the engine to life. I was still watching him when he disappeared on the corner of my street.  
What was happening to me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and kuddos if you liked :3


	22. Runaways

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is always appreciated!!!

CHAPTER 22: Runaways – All Time Low

Cami’s POV: 

 

The rest of the week passed quickly, between English classes where Calum and I were just our usual crazy and overly sassy selves, lunch breaks with the girls where we talked teachers and prom and boys and life, and hangouts with Luke at his place or mine.

Today, we’d planed to go back to the video shop. We’d decided to meet in a nearby park, hoping somehow there would be some shade to allow me to live a few seconds longer. The heat was absolutely overbearing, and it was all I could not to pass out. As I waited for my friends to show up (Jeremy had decided to tag along), I bought some peach fro-yo and stuffed my mouth, enjoying how refreshing it felt. I just didn’t understand Australia. How was it so warm at 6 in the evening? 

The minute Luke arrived in the park, he ran to me with open arms.

“I’ve missed you Cami-bear!”

I winced.

“Don’t call me that, you know I hate it.”

“But I like it,” Luke objected. “And I missed you.”

“We literally saw each other in class two hours ago…”

“I know right? It’s so long!”

He moved to hug me, but I stepped away hastily.

"Don't. I love you but please don't touch me, I'm way too hot for that."

"Wow. There were so many wrong things in that sentence," he snickered.

"Luke, I'm not in the mood," I replied flatly.

He raised his eyebrows, a playful smile at his lips, and I slapped his shoulder, rolling my eyes.

“You’re not funny and you can’t have missed me in only two hours. Get going, giraffe-boy.”

“Hey! That’s not a nice nickname!”

“No? Well you’re tall and yellow, that’s a giraffe no?”

“Yellow?” Luke asked with a grimace of horror. “It’s called blond.”

“Yes but it’s yellow,” I shrugged.

“Should I dye it black? Louisa said I should dye it black.”

“You would look terrible with black hair.”

“That’s not true,” he pouted.

“No it isn’t,” I agreed. “You would look pretty in everything.”

“Pretty? My manhood is hurt!”

“What manhood?”

Jeremy interrupted our bickering by his sudden appearance at our side.

“Hello guys.”

“Cami said I would look ugly with black hair,” Luke complained to Jeremy. “Do you think I’d look ugly with black hair?”

“To be honest, I think you could pull off pretty much anything,” Jeremy said truthfully.

“Are you calling me good-looking?” Luke asked his friend quizzically.

“You are. Not my type though, sorry.”

“Yeah not mine either,” I added.

“Great,” Luke said, rolling his eyes.

“But you’re very attractive anyway! To other people…”

Luke shook his head, grinning.

“You’re such an idiot,” he said.

I scoffed.

“Speak for yourself. I’m not the one who can’t choose between Lilah and Rebecca.”

“What?” Jeremy asked at the same time as Luke groaned loudly.

“Seriously Cami?”

“Yeah. This is an intervention. Right, Jeremy?”

“I just found out about this, but sure. Intervention.”

“You need to figure your shit out, Lukey.”

Luke sighed.

“I don’t want to though. Do I have to?”

“Yes. Just tell me what you think of both girls, and we’ll try to help you.”

Luke bit his lip and thought for a bit.

“Alright. I knew Rebecca first, and I know she’s really nice and sweet and pretty. I liked her for the better part of last year, and I guess I’m kinda protective of her.”

“’Kinda’,” Jeremy snorted softly. “Enough to end up in a hospital for her, yeah.”

“What about Lilah?” I asked, ignoring Jeremy.

“I don’t know. I don’t know her as well, but she’s cool and funny and also smart. And pretty.”

“So do you admit that you like her?” I pressed him.

“I don’t admit anything,” Luke defended himself. “I just think I don’t like Rebecca as much as before. But I’m still very not okay with how Mike treated her, and if I could I would send his sorry ass right back to the hospital, along with Calum.”

I swallowed hard, deciding to just ignore that last part.

“Right. So now you more or less see her as a friend, is that what you’re saying?”

“I guess,” he shrugged.

“And Lilah?” I asked again.

“I don’t know, for fuck’s sake! Can we just drop it?”

I winced at how upset he seemed and immediately softened my tone.

“Yeah, of course. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s just…I don’t know. I’ll tell you, okay? When I know for myself.”

“Okay. Let’s just go to the store, yeah?”

Twenty minutes later, we were sitting on the floor of the store chatting away with Ashton, all thoughts of movies gone. He was such an interesting guy, it was incredible. He and Luke talked guitars for a while, before he explained how he’d always dreamed of playing the drums. Apparently his mom had just given him one for his birthday, and he’d been training on it ever since.

“But isn’t it way harder than guitar?” Jeremy insisted again.

“Well it doesn’t hurt as much as guitar does when you begin. But it really takes a lot out of you,” Ashton explained. “It’s way more physical than guitar.”

“Well duh,” I intervened. “That’s logical.”

“But like, what about rhythm patterns?”

As the boys started asking way too complicated and technical questions for me to follow the conversation (that’s what you get when you don’t play any instrument), I could feel myself getting bored. Biting my lip, I stared at Calum’s contact name on my phone. He’d insisted I change it to ‘Soccer god’, but I’d changed it back to ‘Cal-Pal’. He hated the nickname, which is why I chose it.

To Cal-Pal: I’m booored

To Cal-Pal: Entertain me

From Cal-Pal: What kinda entertainment u looking for? ;)

To Cal-Pal: anything tbh. Stuck with guys talking music 

From Cal-Pal: wtf? That’s awesome

To Cal-Pal: you play?

From Cal-Pal: guitar and bass

From Cal-Pal: aaand the ladies ;)

To Cal-Pal: yes I’m aware. #notimpressed

From Cal-Pal: *gasp* how dare you?

To Cal-Pal: too many musical friends when idk how to play for shit

From Cal-Pal: aww. Well look at the bright side: at least you’re not stuck at a family dinner pretending to be in love with your fake af girlfriend bc you need to convince your parents u’re an angel 

To Cal-Pal: aren’t you one? *horrified gasp*

From Cal-Pal: uh…

To Cal-Pal: hey, did it hurt?

From Cal-Pal: seriously??

To Cal-Pal: just answer the goddamn question

From Cal-Pal: did it hurt when?

To Cal-Pal: when you broke through the crack of earth from the pits of hell where you come from??

From Cal-Pal: ok that’s it. I’m done. I’m out of this convo

To Cal-Pal: noooo

From Cal-Pal: bye bye

To Cal-Pal: Cal don’t leave me!!! no!!!

“Who are you texting?”

Jeremy’s voice made me jump, and I looked up guiltily to see the three guys still cross-legged on the floor. In the meantime though, they’d connected one of their phones to the speakers, and soft music was coming through. Ed Sheeran, I’d guess.

“Your mom,” I replied instinctively.

He wrinkled his nose.

“That’s a shit punchline for a girl.”

“No way! What if I’m bi?”

“Okay but my mom isn’t?”

“How do you know that?” I retorted, then frowned at the thought.

The four of us looked at each other in horrified realization. What were our mothers hiding from us?

“Well, this got weird,” Luke remarked.

“No kidding,” Ashton muttered. “Jeez.”

“Not because this is awkward or anything,” Jeremy said, “but my mom actually did just text me and told me to come home. So…bye guys!”

“Don’t forget to ask your mom!” Luke cried out as he walked out.

Jeremy flipped him off while I yelled:

“Tell her I’m mad at her! She still hasn’t answered my last few texts!”

Jeremy left midst our hysteric laughter.

“What?” I said unashamedly as Ashton shook his head at us.

“You guys are so immature!”

“Oh, because maybe you aren’t?” Luke asked, raising his eyebrows derisively.

“I’m like, three years older than you!”

“That doesn’t mean anything! You’re still a toddler in your head!” I said loudly. “I think…I don’t actually know you, but…”

Luke and Ashton chuckled. My phone buzzed insistently, and Ashton pointed at it.

“Shouldn’t you answer that?”

I shrugged. Calum had given me the silent treatment, he could wait a few minutes himself. My phone buzzed again repeatedly, but I ignored it and kept talking with the boys until Ashton pointed it out again.

“Someone’s getting impatient.”

“Meh, it can wait.”

“If it’s Louisa,” Luke spoke up, “trust me, it can’t wait.”

“Who’s Louisa?” Ashton asked.

“Someone very dangerous that you don’t want to know,” Luke replied instantly.

“I love how you just go around and decide everything for me,” Ashton said drily.

“Oh no,” I sided with Luke (that’s my job as bestie), “she’s cray-cray.”

“Maybe I like cray-cray.”

“Nah, you like cute, giggly and beautiful with a hint of rock,” I said confidently.

Ashton narrowed his eyes at me.

“Remind me never to have a girl friend.”

“Too fucking late!” I belted out. “I’ve already claimed you as a friend! It’s too late for you now!”

“Ah shit.”

Luke patted Ashton’s shoulder.

“We’re in this together.”

“On three. One, two, three! We’re all in this together!” I chanted along with Luke.

We high-fived, and Ashton looked at us with wide eyes.

“Hey are you aware that I’m only employed here? If my manager comes down here and sees you guys being completely mad, I’m out of a job.”

“Your job is hanging by a thread and you’ve been talking and laughing with us for an hour and a half?” I laughed disbelievingly.

Ashton nodded, flashing dimples.

“Yup!”

“We should probably head out then,” Luke grinned.

“My shift ends in a few minutes though.”

I shrugged and sat back on the floor. I took up my phone again and choked back a laugh as I saw the messages Calum had sent me.

From Cal-Pal: *sigh* fiiine

From Cal-Pal: you’re lucky I love you

From Cal-Pal: wait no that came out wrong

From Cal-Pal: I don’t love you

From Cal-Pal: shit that sounds even worse

From Cal-Pal: I don’t love love you, it’s just a thing you say 

From Cal-Pal: but you’re a good friend

From Cal-Pal: ok…you’re not replying…not the right answer then?

From Cal-Pal: Cami??

From Cal-Pal: come on don’t be that girl

From Cal-Pal: argh fuck it I’m Calum fucking Hood I don’t give a shit

From Cal-Pal: I’ll ignore you right back, punk.

I quickly typed out a text and sent it to him.

To Cal-Pal: punks are the best kind of people tbh

His response was immediate.

From Cal-Pal: oh we’re back now, are we?

To Cal-Pal: yeah, yeah, I was only away like 10 mins. No need to get butthurt

From Cal-Pal: I’ll be butthurt when I wanna!

To Cal-Pal: hey wanna come and be butthurt at my place tomorrow?

To Cal-Pal: OMG THAT SOUNDED SO WRONG sorry

From Cal-Pal: no homo tho x)

To Cal- Pal: shut up I didn’t do it on purpose

From Cal-Pal: Freudian slip darling

To Cal-Pal: how do u even know about Freudian slip you illiterate thing?

From Cal-Pal: I have my sources *wiggles eyebrows mysteriously*

To Cal-Pal: that just sounds weird and creepy

To Cal-Pal: anyway do u wanna come to mine and wrap the project up tomorrow

From Cal-Pal: sure thing, see you there :*

Looking up from my phone, I tried not to think about the smiley and fought against my heating cheeks as we waited for Ashton’s shift to be over.


	23. Hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get Scared is the shit i love that song so much holy fuck 
> 
> also warning: drAMA

CHAPTER 23: Hurt – Get Scared

Cami’s POV

 

“Walk away, Australian boy. Walk away!” Louisa yelled at Luke, who laughed out loud.

“It’s not my fault you’re shit at this!”

“I’m not shit!” Louisa defended herself, shaking her dark curls.

My brother raised an eyebrow and she chucked a pillow at him.

“Shut up, Sam!”

Sam, to everyone’s surprise, actually didn’t reply and turned back to the screen. A second later, Luke let out a colorful curse.

“You’re out of the race! Who’s shit now, huh?” Louisa shouted.

“Both of you, actually,” I pointed out, but they shushed me.

After hanging out at the video shop, I had offered to let both Luke and Ashton to sleep over. Since my mom thought there would be too much testerone in the house, I had also called the two sisters, knowing Lilah had a huge test to study for. Ashton and Rebecca had hit it off immediately, to the point where I’d been scared to let them sleep in the same room. They’d left early in the morning for Rebecca’s dancing practice, while Louisa stayed some more. To my surprise, Luke was taking it quite well and had contended himself with teasing his friend. And now, it seemed Louisa and my brother had taken a liking to each other too. What was this? Was I miss matchmaker now or what? Thank god Lilah hadn’t been here, or I would’ve felt seriously left out. For now, I could still count on my best friend as cuddle buddy.

“I am so winning this,” Sam muttered.

“I won’t let you!” Louisa cried.

“You can’t stop me.”

“Sure I can.”

“Make me.”

By this time both of them had left their controllers and were having a stare-contest. I coughed loudly while Luke bit down on his laugh.

“Tone it down, youngsters,” Luke said.

“Yeah, I’m too young to be an aunt,” I added.

Both flipped me off. Wow. So much hate.

“You know what? Nevermind. You guys are perfect for each other. You’re both complete psychos.”

They ignored me, apparently too caught up in each other’s eyes. Eww. I didn’t sign up for this when I invited the girls over!  
Thankfully their moment was broken by someone ringing on the doorbell. 

“Calum!” I breathed, having completely forgotten about the planned meet-up. “Fuck.”

“What?” Luke asked in confusion.

“Everyone out!” I yelled suddenly. “Louisa and Sam, you can go make out somewhere else! I heard the park’s very nice at this time of the year! Any time of the year to be honest.”

“What the actual hell?” Sam started, but I didn’t let him finish his sentence as I pushed him out the door along with his newest crush.

Once they’d left the porch, I saw a very confused Calum looking at me, but quickly shut the door in his face.

“Luke!” I yelled. “You need to clear out too!”

“What? How?”

“The window in my bedroom, quick! Calum hates you!”

“I hate him too!”

“This is all your fault, you have nothing to say! Get out of my house!”

“Alright, alright!”

There was some shuffling and I heard him climb up the stairs to my room before the door closed behind him. I flung the front door open again. 

“Hi!” I exclaimed overly-excitedly at Calum, who raised an eyebrow.

“You’re aware that I heard everything, right?”

“Ah shit. Thin walls. Awkward.”

“So there’s a window in your bedroom from which you get in and out?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Practical,” Calum smirked. “So what was that about it all being Luke’s fault?”

I swallowed hard, groping for an explanation.

“Oh, um…it’s his fault I wasn’t organized. He uh…He insisted to sleep over.”

Calum gave me a look, and I gasped.

“No! Oh my god, not like that! What the hell? Luke and I are just friends.”

“Right,” he said, half in amusement, half in distaste. “That’s why you were having a double-date.”

“What? We weren’t having a double-date! We were having a sleepover! And then it kinda turned into an awkward triple-date with one of the couples being platonic,” I added as an afterthought. “But like, no! I only made him leave because you hate him. Which is totally stupid, by the way.”

Calum didn’t reply anything, and I blushed as I realized how I’d been rambling.

“Anyway! Let’s go work!”

“Yeah, let’s do that…”

There was only one chair at the desk, and of course I sat at it. But Calum stole the book from me and threw himself back on my bed.

“This is just as soft as I remembered,” he sighed contentedly.

Apparently my stomach didn’t agree with Calum lying on my bed because it did weird things at this point. 

“Can you not sit normally? Also give me my book back!”

“No way, I can’t see shit otherwise.”

“Well I can’t see shit if you’re holding it!”

“You can just sit on my lap!”

“Um yeah no,” I replied instantly. 

Calum cocked his head to the side.

“Isn’t that the kind of things friends do?”

“I guess…sometimes…”

“Don’t you do it with Luke?” He added, smirking.

“Yes…”

“So what’s the difference?”

I didn’t wanna jump Luke’s bones, there was the difference. When I saw him on my bed, I wasn’t tempted to take off all his clothes and kiss my way down his chest and stomach and make him pant and moan after my touch like I did Calum. But I couldn’t exactly say that, so instead I just went over to him and sat on his lap. I could feel him right behind me, his heat enveloping me as his arms held the book so both of us could read, caging me in his embrace at the same time. His breath tickled the back of my neck and I repressed a shiver. I didn’t exactly know where this fit into my plan. Sure, there was the whole: make him want you but respect you enough to try to be your friend thing, but where did my own physical reaction to his closeness come in? I sighed. I was so fucked.

Anyway, we actually managed to get the last few notes from the book done. I rose to my feet to put the book away and organize the other papers we had, and would have sat next to him to discuss the whole thing, but he pulled me right back in his lap. This time though, he placed his head on my shoulder and cuddled me from behind. I shut my eyes. Shit shit shit.

Then I let out a breath. Whatever. This was what friends did anyway, right? So I relaxed and melted in his warm embrace as we talked about the details of the project, both pretending not to notice how his fingers lightly traced circles at my right hip while he talked.

Eventually we were done. Calum leaned back against the bed, making me fall down with him. I quickly rolled to my side so that things didn’t become awkward.

“Ugh. I’m so glad this is done with,” he sighed.

“Ah, but now you won’t have any excuses for hanging out with me,” I pointed out.

“What are you on about? Of course we’ll continue seeing each other! That’s what friends do, right?”

“Right.”

At this moment, his phone buzzed. He ignored it, but I saw the text as the screen flashed next to me.

From Anika: What time r u coming tonite? 

“Hey, don’t you have somewhere to be?” I asked him.

“Hmm?” He groaned into my pillow.

“Oi! That’s my pillow! Get away, you punk!”

“You said punks were the best kind of people.”

“Did I?” I asked smilingly.

He lifted his head from my pillow and stuck his tongue out to me before chucking the pillow at my face.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you did.”

“I don’t think so… I would never compliment you,” I said, throwing the pillow back at him.

Calum fake-gasped and clutched his heart in an over-dramatic way.

“I’m hurt!”

“Of course you are. Pussy.”

And that’s when I was tackled by a 6 foot 2 boy, who for all his lankiness was surprisingly heavy.

“Don’t tickle me! Don’t you fucking dare—Ah! Stop stop stop stop!”

“Say I’m amazing!”

“You suck!”

“Say I’m amazing!”

“I hate you!”

The tickling stopped, and I raised my head to see Calum looking at me with a creased brow.

“Do you?”

“No I don’t,” I immediately reassured him. “You’re great.”

“And there we fucking go!” He yelled, dropping the beaten-puppy look. “I knew you loved me!”

“You cheater!”

Calum laughed maniacally while I pouted, annoyed at having been played. Speaking of playing…

“So…who’s Anika?”

The laughter stopped.

“A friend.”

“A friend,” I repeated disbelievingly. “I thought you didn’t have girl friends.”

“You’re the exception to the rule,” he grinned. “Feel honored yet?”

“You think I don’t notice how you change the subject of the conversation?” I snorted.

“Fine. Um, she’s a friend with benefits?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well basically we use each other for sex,” he said bluntly.

“Oh okay…”

There was a moment of silence, and it was interrupted again by a message coming in. He bit his lip as he read it and his eyes flittered to mine, hesitating.

“She’s waiting for you?” I asked.

“She um…yeah.”

“Go then! Wouldn’t want to make you miss your appointment.”

I cringed inwardly at how I hadn’t been able to smother the bitterness in my voice. Calum frowned at me, obviously confused as to whether I was serious or not.

“Go!” I said again, this time more convincing in my light-heartedness.

“Are you sure?” he hesitated.

“Yeah, it’s totally okay.”

“Usually when girls say that they mean the contrary,” Calum pointed out.

“Usually when I tell someone to fuck off I mean exactly what I say,” I retorted.

He rolled his eyes.

“Alright then, smarty pants. Show me out.”

...

The next Monday, we presented our project and completely killed it. But despite what he’d said, I didn’t see any of Calum after that glorious moment. He started ditching English classes again, as well as French. After he didn’t answer my random messages for three days, I stopped trying to contact him altogether. I felt surprisingly miserable. I knew he was a heartbreaker and that he ditched girls after using them, but did that also count for friends? I felt betrayed somehow, and this really didn’t bode well for the Plan. It had been a week and a half now, and the only time we’d bumped into each other was when he’d walked out of the girls’ bathroom. I hadn’t stopped to ask for an explanation, neither had he been keen on giving one. It had just been a few seconds of awkward staring at each other before I continued my way down the corridor to Arts class.

It wasn’t like I didn’t know that he saw a lot of girls. But maybe I’d thought he’d have enough respect for them (and the girls for themselves) not to do it in the school’s bathrooms. But I guessed I had been wrong.

...

“No, you are not ditching sports class!” Ethan exclaimed.

“But I don’t wanna…” I pouted.

“I know but I don’t care,” he countered. “Luke would kill me if I let you ditch.”

“Luke is not my older brother! Or my dad!”

“No, but he’ll still kill me. And I happen to like being alive.”

“Ugh. But who says he’ll find out?”

“Cami, it’s not because he’s busy peeing right now that he won’t notice you’re not here when we go out on the field. I swear he has a Cami-radar.”

Sadly, I had to admit that was true.

“But soccer is no fun,” I complained. “It’s all waiting around for the ball to come, and all freaking out and destroying your team’s good work when it does come.”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure that’s just you.”

“Well I am me! So it’s no fun. Plus it’s so hot outside today I’m gonna die.”

“Well yeah, beginning of summer and all. But you’ll get used to it.”

I considered the way my skin felt like it was burning and how my head pounded, protesting against the overbearing heat.

“Sure…”

With a sigh, I gave up and headed to the changing room, where I pulled on my sweat shorts and tank-top. I really really hoped I wouldn’t be on the jersey team today. I just couldn’t deal with more sweaty things. Ugh. 

Grace and her friends were here, and I answered her hi awkwardly. Since the first sports class, I hadn’t really talked to her, but she smiled and waved whenever she saw me, and I felt obligated to return the gesture. I felt kind of bad because I could tell she was a good person, but something about her irked me. Maybe it was the whole perfection thing she had going on. Or the fact that she was dating Calum, when they clearly didn’t feel anything for each other… I didn’t know, but it bothered me a bit.

I was a bit late when I got on the field, so I immediately went over to Luke, Ethan and Jeremy, who were already jogging while having a conversation about Will Smith. Luke discreetly took hold of my hand and gave it a squeeze as he saw I had some trouble returning his smile. Last soccer class had been horrible. I still completely sucked, and it didn’t help that I had to see Calum be all haughty and uncaring about me after promising that we’d stay friends. I jogged in silence for some time until the coach whistled for us to stop.

This time, instead of making the two teams on his own, he chose two people to pick the rest of their team. To everyone’s surprise – not – Calum and Jeremy were the two captains, being the two guys from the school’s team. Calum started by calling someone I didn’t know; Jeremy chose Ethan. Instead of picking their friends, which is what I originally thought they were doing, I realized they actually sized every person up before calling their name. Competitive much? When all the jocks and slightly muscular guys had gone, Calum’s gaze fell on me. Surely he wouldn’t—

“Cami.”

Are you kidding? I let out a soft gasp and moved to join his team. I literally couldn’t believe it. He knew I was shit. I was probably one of the worst of the whole class, and still he’d chosen me as the first non-amazing leveled person here. Luke was, of course, on Jeremy’s team – there was absolutely no way Calum would have chosen him.

As it was, I didn’t know anyone in my team except for Calum and Grace, if she even counted. The most I’d interacted with the others was when they sighed at me for failing a pass. Well, this was going to be fun… I decided to just act like nothing had ever happened between Calum and me, and pushed back any hurt or anger I might still feel. That’s what he seemed to be doing. He made us gather around and explained how he wanted us to be positioned, and more or less assigned roles to each of us. For the first time in my whole soccer-playing life (a month), I was supposed to be an attacker. 

“Um, what? How?” I asked.

“The other position you had didn’t work out, so I think you’ve gotta try something new. Just run after the ball and kick it to me whenever you can. Shouldn’t be too hard, even for you.”

“Yeah, I’ll be sure to kick your ball,” I said behind gritted teeth.

A few people snickered. Calum smiled snarkily, humor dancing in his eyes.

“Great. Just follow my lead.”

And then get this. He fucking kissed me on the cheek and left to talk to our goalie. The nerve of the guy. Like yeah, let’s be friends and then ignore each to her for a week and then kiss each other’s cheek. No big deal. Wasn’t it the girls’ job to be hot-and-cold? I set my jaw in anger, feeling everyone’s disbelieving eyes on me. I knew exactly what they were thinking. Why had the most popular and hot jock in the whole school just kissed the cheek of the new American weirdo and completely ignored his own perfect girlfriend? Since I had absolutely no answers to give to their stares, I ducked my head and avoided their gazes, especially Grace’s. Yeah okay, she didn’t like her boyfriend, but I wasn’t exactly sure she’d appreciate him demonstrating signs of affection towards another girl, especially not in front of everyone.

However, when Calum came back, he was all business and dispatched us on the field. I just kinda followed him around until he turned to me, one eyebrow raised.

“What are you doing?”

“You said to follow your lead,” I responded steadily.

“Yeah, when the game has started.”

“Then what do you want me to do? Where do I put myself? I’m so confused man, I don’t know shit about soccer.”

“It’s called football,” he pointed out for what had to be the millionth time.

“Fine, whatever!” I answered harshly, suddenly loosing my cool.

Somehow hearing him say what we’d bantered about several times in good humor hurt me, now that all bridges were cut between us. He stilled at my tone and frowned, looking at me.

“Is something wrong?”

I gasped.

“Yes something is fucking wrong! You can’t just tell me we’re gonna be friends and then not talk to me or text me or say hi like a friend would do for fucking a week and a half! And then you kiss me in front of everyone like what the fuck? I thought you didn’t want to be associated with the American punk? And fuck it, Calum, I know you think you can sleep around and play with people but that’s not how shit works. That’s not okay! And I have no right and I probably sound like an over-obsessive girlfriend at the moment, which by the way is completely ridiculous because I don’t even like you, but come on! How about you don’t treat people like pieces of shit? And maybe it doesn’t matter to you that you do actually have a girlfriend but maybe it’s time for you to man up and decide what the fuck you want because fooling around with girls and making them feel weird fucking things for you and then leaving them is just not right! And I—I’m just not okay with that kind of person.”

We stared at each other a bit. I had this strange lump in my throat and my eyes were burning.

“Well I didn’t really kiss you,” Calum finally said lightly. “We can change that though, if you want.”

“Fuck you, Calum.” I spat, and turned on my heels.

I started walking back towards the other field, instinctively going to Luke, but Calum grabbed hold of my arm and turned me around. His eyes were intense as he looked at me searchingly before letting out a curse.

“I told you I wasn’t good at this friend shit.”

“Go to hell.”

I freed my arm from his grip with a violent tug and turned away. That piece of shit! It was one thing to ignore me for a week, it was another to make up crap excuses because he couldn’t man up and take responsibility for his jerkish behavior. I was seething with anger, but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction to see me upset. So I went over to the other attackers and waited for the coach’s signal to start the game.

To my surprise, I was actually better at this than I’d expected. Sure, I didn’t always manage to pass the ball to my teammates, but I didn’t hand it over to the enemy once, which was enough in itself to make me proud. And then came the moment I never thought would happen. We were only a few minutes away from the end of the match, and we had just suffered a strong attack from the other team. The only reason why the goal hadn’t been scored was that a good part of our attackers went to the defense’s help. Somehow Calum and I were suddenly the only ones on the other side of the field, along with half of the other team’s defense. And as someone sent the ball out to our side of the field in what looked to me like a suicidal move, we were alone to face the wrath of the other team.

Despite my burning wish to ignore Calum, I was mature enough to push away my resentment and follow his command when he asked me to cover for him. Not knowing exactly what he expected from me, I tried to keep up with his sprinting as he dribbled towards the nets. I squeaked as a huge jock charged toward us, but then in a split-second decision, thought he wouldn’t hurt a girl and ran right back at him. As I’d expected, he slowed down for fear of hurtling into me, and Calum was able to continue his advance towards the nets. Yay me! I put the same tactic to use once or twice more, and it even worked against girls (who apparently thought me crazy enough to actually run into them). Calum dribbled effortlessly around the others who wanted to take the ball from him, and then we were finally a few yards from the nets. With only me as helper, Calum had to do his shot alone. Jeremy jumped to the side and blocked it, accidentally sending the ball right to me. 

Automatically I kicked it, and stared wide-eyed as it went right into the net, too quick for Jeremy to stop. Jeremy looked at me in shock and I waved at him awkwardly as the coach whistled the end of the match.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Calum jog towards me, but deliberately walked in the other direction. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. The rest of the team congratulated me, which felt weird as hell, since I’d technically not done a thing. But I guessed it was a drastic change from my former performances. I had just crossed the field and was taking off my jersey when I was suddenly tackled by an enormous hug from Luke.

“Oh my god Cami!” He screeched right in my ear. “I’m so proud of you!”

“You just lost because of me,” I pointed out. “Shouldn’t you be sad?”

“No way! You were great!”

“It wasn’t really me.”

“Of course it wasn’t, but it’s still amazing,” he laughed.

I giggled and ruffled his hair. 

“You’re so stupid. Good job too, no? I’m pretty sure it was this pretty blonde head that scored that second goal of yours.”

“Yup!” He grinned proudly. “We did awesome today, bestie! I think we deserve a fro-yo!”

“Hmm agreed!”

And for the first time of the week, I felt alight with joy. Who cared about a selfish player anyway?


	24. Mad at myself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you don't know the band Issues go check them out like rn, they're fucking great

CHAPTER 24: Mad At Myself – Issues 

Calum’s POV:

 

I pushed away the hair plastered to my forehead with sweat in an angry movement, and shrugged off my jersey. My jaw was set, shoulders still tense after more than two hours of intense training. Contrary to the usual, my teammates didn’t try to talk to me. Good for them; I really wasn’t in the mood. I harshly threw my things in my bag and pushed my way through my teammates to the door. On the way, I briefly met Jeremy’s gaze and gritted my teeth, a wave of irrational jealousy rushing through me. He was her friend; I’d seen them laughing together earlier this afternoon. I shook my head at the thoughts that swirled in my head. I didn’t understand any of it. I’d never felt so possessive of any girl, or so troubled when it didn’t work out (which for the record barely ever happened).

I blew an irritated sigh, which was only worsened when Grace’s name flashed on my phone. I considered ignoring the call, but knowing her, she wouldn’t let go until I answered.  
I speed-walked to the parking lot as I took the phone to my ear.

“What.”

“Calum,” she said, sounding unhappy with me. “Why does my friend Sophie here say she gave you a blowjob in the bathroom a few days ago? I thought we were over this.”

“Ugh, get over yourself. She liked it, I liked it, who cares?”

Cami did. I still saw the look on her face when she caught me leaving the girls’ bathroom. Disgust, disappointment, anger, a bit of sadness… It made my skin crawl. She must really hate me now. And how I hadn’t been able to do anything today but to give her my usual flirty comments that I knew would only hurt her, but what else could I do? I wasn’t good for anything else.

“Calum, we’ve talked about this! You said you’d make an effort to keep it down! What you did with Sophie is not keeping it down—“

“Just drop it Grace,” I cut her, anger radiating from my voice. “I’m not in the mood to have this conversation with you. Not today.”

There was a silence on the line for a few seconds. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft, a bit hesitating.

“Is something wrong?”

“No.”

“Calum…”

I sighed and dropped down on the ground next to Betty, leaning against the hard metal.

“Fine. I fucked up.”

“When don’t you?” She said lightly.

“Fuck off,” I replied tonelessly, not in the mood for jokes.

“How about you tell me what’s wrong, and I’ll try to help you.”

“It’s Cami.”

“Cami’s wrong?” Grace asked, not understanding.

“No, I fucked up with Cami.”

“Are you upset because she refused to give you sexual favors?” Grace asked sharply, her voice suddenly cold and slightly derisive.

“No!”

“Oh. Then what?”

“I tried to be friends with her, okay? Talk about a bad idea.”

“Wait, what? Since when do you try to become friends with a girl?”

“I know right!”

“But…did you do it to like, win her over or…”

“I don’t fucking know! We see each other a bit and kiss a few times and then she’s all like, let’s be friends! And what do I fucking say? I say yes! Like what the hell is wrong with me?”

“Wait wait let me get this clear: you became friends with a girl after having kissed her several times?”

“Yeah.”

“Even though you’re attracted to her?”

I thought about Cami, about her shapely legs, her thin waist, her enticing lips and her striking blue eyes. The way she’d danced around, laughing crazily. The way her kiss had been scorching hot and empowering. The way she left me breathless.

“That’s one way to put it,” I muttered.

“That’s not very Calum Hood.”

“What else could I do? She friendzoned me several times.”

“What you always do when it doesn’t work out Calum. Either make it work out, or ignore the girl forever.”

“Yeah okay so I made an exception. That’s the problem.”

She sighed.

“Okay what did you do to fuck up?”

“Um… I might or might not have ignored her messages and not talked to her for about a week.”

“You did what?” Her horrified and shocked tone made me wince. “Why the fuck would you do that?”

“I just…it was just hard to be around her and pretend like I just wanted to be friends, you know?”

“Oh my god,” she breathed. “You are so stupid.”

“I know!” I growled. A pause. “Why?”

“Because! You can’t become friends with someone and then ignore them! Does she know we’re not a real couple?”

“Yeah.”

“So she knows about your player tendencies.”

“Yes…” I frowned, not knowing what she was getting at.

“Jesus.”

“What? What does it change?”

“It changes that do you realize what an effort it must have took her to trust you not to fuck her over and actually invest yourself in a friendship? And then you do exactly what she was afraid of! She probably thinks you played her!”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense! I did this exactly because I didn’t want to play her!”

“I saw you talking in sports class. What happened?”

“I acted like we weren’t friends,” I said tonelessly. “And then I flirted with her as if she was just another girl.”

“Wow. You’re a real douche.”

“Thanks.”

“So you ruined all chance you had with her because you were afraid you wouldn’t be able to stay in the friendzone… Did it never occur to you that she might like you back?”

“Don’t be ridi—Wait, who said I liked her? I don’t like her.”

“Oh, please. You don’t wanna play her, but you can’t stand being in the friendzone. You think she’s beautiful and great and you stare at her 24/7. You hate her best friend on the basis that he’s a guy. You’re in the worst mood I’ve ever seen you in because you fucked up with her. You never care, Calum. Ever. So don’t tell me she doesn’t have you whipped.”

“I’m Calum Hood. I’m incapable of being whipped.”

“You said it yourself, she’s the exception.”

I let out a groan, realizing how right Grace was. How could I have let this happen?

“There’s no way she likes me though,” I sighed.

“Don’t be so sure. I mean, she cared enough to want to be friends with you in the first place, despite knowing what kind of a guy you are… You told me you guys kissed?”

“Yeah. She was drunk though.”

But that wasn’t true. She hadn’t been the first time. I remembered the way she’d smirked at me and kissed me slowly. Was it possible that she’d liked me then? Her face when she’d told me to go to hell flashed in my mind, and all hope forming in my chest got crushed. Whatever had gone through her mind at that instant, she hated me now.

“And that’s not all,” I said, defeated. “She saw me leave the bathroom after Sophie gave me a blowjob.”

“Oh my god,” Grace moaned. “How could you be such an idiot?”

“Hey, I have urges okay! And it doesn’t help that I can’t get her off my mind! I needed to release the tension somehow! I couldn’t know she’d see me, or that she’d be mad.”

Grace was silent long enough for me to realize how much of an ass I’d been. I could feel guilt churning in my stomach. Finally, she spoke.

“How did she react this morning?”

“She got mad. Clearly told me she didn’t want to see me again.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Calum. You really hurt her. But I wouldn’t give up all hope I if were you. Just, ugh, just try to be nice with her. And keep it in your pants!”

Shaking my head dejectedly, I ended the call. Sitting on my motorcycle, I turned the key in the ignition, but even the roar of Betty’s engine couldn’t make me feel better today. I truly was a shit person after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :(


	25. No 1. Party Anthem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's ready for a new partyy? ;)

CHAPTER 25: No 1. Party Anthem – Arctic Monkeys

Cami’s POV:

 

At seven pm on Friday, I was casually listening to Arctic Monkey’s newest album, checking my Tumblr feed, when someone burst into my room, banging the door open. I let out a groan.

“Seriously Sam if this is you—“

“It’s Lilah, stupid.”

The girl skipped over to where I was sitting on my bed, smiling widely.

“Your brother isn’t here anyway. Didn’t he tell you he’s on a date with Louisa?”

“What? No he didn’t!”

“Well Louisa told me all about how cute he is and how he’s taking her out tonight, which is why she’s going to the party.”

Oh right. The party. James was hosting a new one tonight. It’d only been announced yesterday, but there was no doubt the whole school would go. Except me, that is. While the guys had managed to make me feel better yesterday, I wasn’t exactly ready to face a social situation at the moment. At least not in one of Calum’s best friends’ house.

“You’re going, by the way,” Lilah said.

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are. I don’t care if you’re butthurt about the whole Calum thing. You knew he was a jackass, and even though it hurts now you don’t have any mixed feelings about him anymore. He deserves pain!” She exclaimed, her eyes wild.

“You’re scaring me,” I deadpanned.

“Thank you, I try.”

“I don’t want everyone looking at me because of how he kissed my cheek yesterday,” I grimaced.

“Oh darling, don’t think you’re special. You’re not the one Calum’s been openly affectionate to despite having his girlfriend,” Lilah told me. “Now you gotta get your head up high and show him what he’s missing on! And then make him fall in love with you and break his heart,” she added.

“Fine,” I let out with a roll of my eyes, ignoring the sting of her comment about me being just another play toy. All mixed feelings about him gone my ass. “Well then, I’m gonna take a shower. Did you bring your dress with you?”

“Yep! Hurry though, we don’t have that much time!”

“We have like two hours!” I called back. “You’re being stupid.”

By the time I was got out of the shower, wearing a too-large tee-shirt and with a towel wrapped around my head, Lilah had laid out one of the dresses we’d bought a few weeks ago on the bed. She was sitting in front on the mirror, trying to pull her hair in a ponytail using a strand of her own hair. I left her to it, instead eyeing the red dress dubiously. It’d looked great in the shop, but now that I had to actually wear it, it looked…dressy.

“Well, put it on!” She exclaimed, not once turning her head in my direction.

“Bossy.”

“You know I am. Now please get dressed or we’ll be late.”

“You’re not dressed,” I pointed out, but went over to the bed anyway.

“Yes, but I’ve already done my hair and make-up, while you’re still a mess.”

“Ouch,” I said dispassionately. 

Quickly pulling the dress over my head, I winced at the sight of myself. The dress was nice, of course, the upper-part a bustier with the material then flowing down to mid-thigh. But it wasn’t me.

“This doesn’t look like something I would ever wear,” I mused. “Actually, it isn’t something I would ever wear. Why did I buy this again?”

“Because Rebecca and Jenifer drowned you in so many compliments you had to take it.”

“Oh. Yeah that makes sense.”

She finally turned to me, narrowing her eyes slightly.

“Yeah, you look beautiful…but you don’t look you.”

She bit her lip and suddenly her eyes lit up.

“I have an idea! The girls will kill me for this, but we need to break the good girl image.”

Making me sit on the floor, she started doing my make-up, painting my eyelids black with exaggerated wings and my mouth a deep red that matched the dress.

“Do you have a chocker?”

I nodded and got it from one of the cupboards.

“Leather bracelets?”

“Uh…no.”

“Fishnets?”

“Yeah. They’re torn though.”

“Even better!”

She added thigh-high leather boots and a messy bun (tied with a leather string) and bam. I looked like I came straight out of an emo music video.

“Why do I always end up looking like a dangerous hooker?” I asked her as I stared at my reflection.

“Cause you are one?”

“What? I’m not dangerous!” I protested, somehow keeping a straight face.

That wasn’t Lilah’s case as she exploded into laughter, her head caught as in the dark fabric of her dress as she pulled it over her head.

...

Just like the first time, we picked Luke up from his house on the way to the party. This time, though, Ethan strung along. Apparently they’d been hanging out together.

“So where’s your better half?” I asked Ethan as he sat in the backseat next to me.

“Jenifer? She’s with Rebecca. I think they’re bringing this guy Ashton with them.”

“Oh yeah, he’s cool.”

“Hey, did you know Louisa has a date tonight?” He asked excitedly.

“Yeah,” I groaned. “It’s with my brother.”

“What?” Ethan laughed. “She omitted that detail!”

“None of them told me, I had to find out through Lilah! I feel so left out,” I pouted.

“She’s probably scared you won’t approve.”

“Scared? Louisa?” I snorted. “Not likely.”

Ethan grinned in agreement, and had just started asking me what I knew about Ashton (whom he hadn’t met yet) when Lilah pulled over at James’ place.

“And here we are!” She exclaimed.

I looked around, not impressed. The garden was as littered as last time, except there seemed to be a number of half-naked people hanging by the pool. Lilah raised an eyebrow at us, silently asking if we wanted to go, but I shook my head vehemently. How about no? And if it wasn’t for the simple fact that I hadn’t brought any swimming clothes, I knew that it’d make Luke uncomfortable. Despite his constant jokes about his looks, he was actually quite shy and self-conscious when it came to showing his half-naked body off. Not to mention in front of forty other people we barely knew.

So instead we went inside the house. We quickly grabbed a few bottles of Jack and vodka from a table, and went looking for an empty corner in the huge living-room, somewhere we could chill out without hundreds of people sweating and grinding on us. That was quickly found, and the four of us sat down in a circle. The music pumping through the speakers made something alike adrenaline rushing through my veins.

Still, I couldn’t help but feel slightly deflated when I caught eye of Calum in the crowd. He was what they called ‘dancing’ with a girl, hands low on her hips as she moved against him. What made it worse, he was wearing an All Time Low tank-top that I absolutely adored, but that was sold out when I tried to buy it. This was like, blasphemy. I turned away, resisting the urge to gag. As I did so, I made eye-contact with Rebecca, and swiftly waved her over. She disappeared in the crowd for a few moments before suddenly sitting down next to us, along with Jenifer and Ashton.

“Hey!”

“Hello!”

“What’s up?”

The few who hadn’t met each other shook hands and exchanged a few jokes to break the ice. Lilah started passing a bottle around, each of us taking a few swigs at a time. A few minutes into the bottle, Jeremy appeared at our side, along with four other people I didn’t know.

“Oi! I brought friends!”

“Friends from where?” Ethan asked at the same time as Luke gasped.

“You have friends?”

Jeremy giggled, apparently more than a bit tipsy already.

“Yes I do, you fucktart. This is Justin and Gabe from the bar, and Jasmine and her girlfriend but I can’t remember her name.”

“Sarah,” the brunette quipped up, but Jeremy didn’t appear to have heard her.

“So yeah. I wanna play a game. Can we play a game?”

After some arguing and bickering, we agreed on ‘spin-the-bottle’, despite my protests on how childish a game it was. Ashton insisted he wanted to start, and the bottle landed on one of the guys Jeremy had brought along. The guy seemed absolutely thrilled at the prospect of kissing Ashton, while my curly-haired friend was less than ecstatic. Still, he did it, causing us all to laugh at how flustered he was.

“It’s okay,” Luke reassured him. “No one took a picture, your secret’s safe with us.”

“I beg to disagree,” Rebecca teased. “I took a few actually.”

She waved her phone in the air and Ashton let out an exclamation, trying to grab it back. We left them to their cute antics and turned back to the game. Jenifer spun the bottle this time, and giggled when it landed on Ethan, who pulled her in for a sweet kiss. It had just begun to last a bit too long when Lilah yelled out:

“Guys stop! No PDA!”

Ethan scoffed, laughing.

“This game is literally about PDA.”

“Shut up. It’s my turn.”

She kissed one of the girls Jeremy had brought, causing the girlfriend to tense up and glare.

“It’s just a game,” I said, rolling my eyes to relieve the tension.

“Alright your turn Cami!” Jeremy exclaimed.

Complacently I span the bottle, and couldn’t help a laugh when it landed on Luke.

“It’s fate, babe,” I told him with an exaggerated wink, and he laughed out loud.

Smiling, I went over to him and placed a kiss on his lips, which he returned gently. We were about to break apart when one of the girls yelled.

“More! You call that a kiss?”

Luke rolled his eyes at her before pulling me back to his mouth. This time, we made out more than kissed, his hands firmly placed on my hips while my arms went around his neck. I parted my lips when his tongue asked for entrance, my fingers tangling in his hair. It was nice, Luke was really good, but there was no passion behind our actions. Our feelings for each other being strictly friendly, it felt weird kissing him and I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my lips. We pulled apart as Luke started grinning too.

“I’m so proud of you, Lukey!” I told him affectionately. “You’ve turned into a great kisser.”

“Same there Cami-bear,” Luke winked.

“We should totally do that more often,” I joked.

“Totally!”

We exchanged a look and erupted in another fit of giggles, shaking our heads.

“Not.”

We calmed down after another minute of laughing, and only because Lilah menaced to throw the bottle of vodka at our heads. I seized the occasion to steal the bottle and have myself a drink (okay, more than I probably should’ve) while the others continued playing ‘spin-the-bottle’. Jeremy kissed the blonde boy he’d introduced as Gabe, and we had to call them out on too big PDA before they let go of each other. Jesus, thirsty much? The game went on for another half-an-hour, in which I somehow escaped having to kiss anyone. However, in the meantime, all the vodka had suspiciously disappeared from my bottle, and I could feel myself get a bit tipsy.

“Shit,” I half-whispered to Luke. “I don’t have any alcohol left.”

He took a glance at the empty bottle in my hands and rolled his eyes.

“Do you really wanna go down that road?”

I nodded my head over-enthusiastically. 

“Yup!”

“Oh well, it’s your problem… And it’s not like you’re going to have a hangover anyway…” 

He shrugged and handed me another bottle, this time Jack Daniel’s. Yum. I loved whisky. I sipped the bottle silently, occasionally laughing when the game became really awkward (Luke and Ethan kissing was something worth being seen). When my turn came, I refused to spin the bottle and instead started singing the Frozen soundtrack. Luke burst out laughing, but Jeremy wouldn’t have it.

“No! You have to spin the bottle Cami!”

“I don’t want to! You’re all ugly! I don’t wanna kiss any of you!”

“At least stop singing Let it go,” Rebecca groaned.

“You should chill,” I retorted smartly. “That’s why I’m singing Frozen. Get it? Get it?” I started giggling, proud of my joke.

Next to me, Luke face-palmed, making me pout.

“Don’t be a meanie!” I whispered to him.

“Cami, I think now’s the time.”

I frowned and thought about it for a second.

“Yeah I think too.”

“Time for what?” Lilah asked curiously, close enough to have heard our exchange.

“There comes a time at night when one of us has reached the point where they’re drunk enough that whatever they do, they’re not held responsible for it,” Luke explained.

“Basically I can do whatever I want now!” I yelled happily. “I’m free!”

“Oh wow, okay. What happened last time one of you reached this point?”

I started laughing.

“Luke ran around the house in underwear! And then he put a Christmas hat on and pretended to be Santa Claus!”

“No, I’m pretty sure that was you,” Luke pointed out.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Maybe it was both of us?”

“Anyway, it was all forgotten about because we’d reached that point, you know?”

“Last time I was this drunk I had sex with a stranger,” I giggled.

“Wait, are you gonna get all weird and horny now?” Lilah asked in dread.

“Probably!” Luke groaned. “Just wait for it.

I stuck my tongue out to him and desperately tried to find his ticklish places as the others played on. Eventually they got bored and it was decided that we’d play ‘truth-or-dare’ instead. I agreed happily; that game never got old. Still, we needed some fresh blood, so we got up to look for other people who might wanna play. I discovered that I was more than a bit unsteady on my feet, but ignored it as I skipped through the dancing crowd. Humming mindlessly to the shitty pop music playing, I looked for people I might know, but came up empty. Pouting, I walked over to where the drinks were displayed and swallowed down a mojito or two. Three?

Anyway, I suddenly saw Calum in the crowd. He was talking to a few girls and they totally had their hands all over him, but meh. He was my friend, no? He’d wanna play. I made my way to him, grinning wildly.

“Cal!”

He looked up quickly, his eyes widening in shock as he saw me standing in front of him. He seemed to forget all about his other girl friends, and just stared at me fixedly. I started to feel uncomfortable. Why was he staring? Maybe I looked terrible.

“No you don’t,” he shook his head. “You look absolutely beautiful.”

I gasped. Had he read my mind or something? This time, Calum choked down a laugh.

“No I didn’t, you said that out loud.”

“I did?” 

“Yup!” He grinned, his whole face lighting up beautifully, before he suddenly sobered. “Why did you come talk to me? I thought you were mad.”

“I’m mad at you?” I asked in confusion, before suddenly remembering that he’d ignored me for a very long time and that it’d hurt me. “Oh yeah I am. You were mean to me,” I pouted.

“I know, I’m so sorry,” Calum whispered sadly.

It made me sad to see him sad.

“You could totally make it up to me though!” I added brightly.

“What? How?”

“We wanna play ‘truth-or-dare’ but we’re missing people! You should play with us!”

Calum blinked.

“Um…sure…”

“Great, let’s go!”

I took his hand and literally tore him away from the other girls, who’d apparently started to be impatient enough to touch him again. Seriously, girls, hands off! He was my friend. I dragged him to the others, who were sitting in a circle again. They were more than before, though, I noticed.

“Hey! I brought Calum!” I shouted, smiling widely.

Everyone looked up in surprise, apparently not expecting me to have found and convinced the golden boy of the school to play with us. But I had! I was cool! I sat down where I’d been before, between Luke and Lilah, and took up the half-empty whisky bottle I’d left there. I noticed that Calum looked more than uncomfortable, sitting next to one of Jeremy’s gay friends who was a bit obvious in his drooling, and offered him to share the bottle. He took me up on the offer gratefully and I smiled at the knowledge of having done a good deed. Now everyone was happy! However, the smile quickly dropped from my face when the boy next to him asked for the bottle.

“It’s my bottle!” I called out, frowning.

“Calm down, I just want a swig.”

“No! It’s my bottle!” I insisted again.

Calum looked between us in bewilderment, still holding the bottle in his hand.

“Dude, she’s drunk. It’s a party, we share the alcohol,” the guy said in a duh voice.

“It’s mine,” I whispered sadly, looking at Calum from under my lashes.

He blinked and wordlessly handed me the bottle. Smiling I held it to me fiercely.

“It’s my bottle!” I called out once again, causing the group to chuckle.

The boy shook his head disbelievingly at Calum, giving him a what-the-fuck-dude look. Well guess what, idiot, Calum was my friend and he’d be nice to me because also it was obvious that it was my bottle and I decided who could drink from it and I’d only let my friends drink from it. There was silence and everyone stared at me. Oh. Had I said that out loud too?

“So,” Luke said, obviously fighting the urge to laugh, “did I tell you guys Cami’s a possessive girl?”

All of them laughed at me again, and I felt myself blush in embarrassment. Why was everyone so mean? I just wanted my bottle.

“You’re mean,” I complained to Luke again, but he just kissed my cheek affectionately.

“You know I love you.”

With a dramatic sigh, I nodded. We started playing ‘truth-or-dare’, making people do some pretty weird stuff, if you asked me. Most of it involved drinking alcohol (num-num) or taking a piece of cloth off (num-num) or doing some strange dancing (whut?). I didn’t concentrate enough to hear the people when someone chose a truth, but they laughed a lot. After Lilah had tried and failed to lick her elbow, it was my turn.

“Truth or dare, Cami?” 

I bit my lip. I couldn’t choose ‘truth’ cause they’d just ask me who was the hottest guy there and I couldn’t tell them that Calum was like a god compared to the rest of them because it’d be awkward to be friends afterwards and also just no, so I’d have to choose ‘dare’. Looking up, I was about to open my mouth and tell them my decision when I saw them grinning like fools again. Next to me, Luke was shaking with silent laughter.

Oh god, please no, not again. Swallowing hard, I hesitantly turned to look at Calum, a feeling of dread growing in my stomach. He was staring at me in shock. Well shit.


	26. Young god

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That song is hawwt. also you can thank me later for this chapter

CHAPTER 26: Young God – Halsey 

Calum’s POV:

 

I stared at Cami in shock because did she seriously just say that I looked like a god? From the way her blue eyes were wide, the tops of her cheeks blushing furiously, I’d say yes. I’d also say she hadn’t meant to say it out loud. It’s not like I didn’t know she found me attractive. I mean, most girls thought so, and I’d caught her staring a few times before, but it was quite a different thing to hear her say it so plainly. To be honest, I wasn’t even in the mood to smirk and tease her about it. Nope, I was in the mood to lay her down and make her moan my name until she couldn’t speak anymore because the pleasure was too intense. Yeah, that’d be good.

I was so immersed in my thirsty thoughts that I didn’t realize that they’d given Cami a dare before she rose to her feet. 

“Let’s go!” One of her friends said, pushing her towards a door. “There’s a room in here. We’ll just lock the door.”

“How do you even have a key?” Someone asked.

“I stole it from James. Come on, Calum, we’re waiting for you!”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“You go too! Do you not know what seven minutes in Heaven is or what?”

“Wait what?”

“You, Cami, room, seven minutes. Go!”

They pushed me inside what looked like a small storage room along with Cami, and locked the door behind us. I slowly turned to her, and the slightly confused look in her doe-like eyes had all words freezing in my throat. She looked around a bit before catching her lower lip between her teeth. Fuck fuck fuck. Shuffling her feet, she lifted her eyes to me again, pouting a bit. Shit, was she doing it on purpose or what?

“So we have seven minutes,” she stated softly. “What do you wanna do?”

Her words sounded so genuine and innocent and fuck, why couldn’t I think of anything else than the table behind her? And why the hell did she have to wear that fucking dress with those fucking torn fishnets and that fucking choker and ugh—fuck it.

My lips came crashing into hers, and I heard her breath catch. I had a shock when she instantly put her arms around my neck and kissed me back fiercely. This had nothing to do with the way we’d kissed before. This was sloppy, hungry, needy and mind-blowingly hot. This time around, she parted her lips and let me inside her mouth immediately. It was all I could do not to stumble at the tidal wave of sensations that came over me. Her smell, her taste, her touch… I needed more. I pressed her against the table behind her and she easily sat on it.

She broke the kiss and starting suckling at the skin of my neck, making me gasp. Grasping her legs, I trailed my fingers up the ripped material of her fishnets, teasingly drawing circles on her soft skin until her kisses in my neck turned to panting. Then I drew away and caught her lips again, unable to stay away from their addictive taste for too long. Suddenly she parted her legs and I almost fell forward before groaning as she hooked them around my waist, pulling me even closer. Her fingers found their way to my hair and played with it a bit roughly, making me groan again. My head fell against the crook of her neck and I slightly bucked my hips to her when she gave my hair a harsher tug. The sudden friction between our cores made her moan, and I had never, ever heard anything hotter.

She started kissing and biting my neck again as I ran my fingers down her body. Shit, she was so fit. I was panting heavily, sometimes kissing her jaw, her neck, her shoulder, as I drew circles on her waist with my thumbs, almost dragging them across the red satin-like material of her dress. Then she suddenly bit a soft spot on my neck and I couldn’t help but press my hips into hers again. Her fingers curled in my hair and she tugged me impossibly closer to her, her lips leaving my neck to claim mine again.

Out of the blue, someone knocked on the door. 

“Hello-o guys, time’s up!”

Time’s up my ass. Cami seemed to have the same thought because she didn’t loosen her grip on me at all. I put my fingers to the back of her neck, playing lightly with the strands of hair that had fallen from her bun. She hummed against my mouth lightly, her own fingers gliding from my hair to dig my back.

The door opened suddenly, but I refused to pull away from Cami before someone literally took hold of my arm. Breathless, I broke the kiss and turned around to face Luke darkly. If looks could kill, he would have been six feet under at the moment.

“Let go of her!”

“What the fuck!” I shrugged his hand away from my arm angrily. “She kissed me back.”

“She. Is. Drunk,” he said, his voice icy. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing. So you’re gonna let go of her, and you’re going to get the fuck out of this room.”

“So what? So you can fuck her instead?” I exclaimed out of spite, remembering how I’d seen the two kissing some time before she’d asked me to play with them.

Luke clenched his jaw but somehow managed to keep his cool, although his eyes screamed bloody murder. 

“I am her friend. As her friend, I know exactly how she is when she gets drunk. So you’re going to step away, and you’re going to let me handle this.”

I felt sick. He was right, I knew. She was completely wasted. There was no fucking way she would have made out with me otherwise. In my gut, I was sure the minute she woke up tomorrow morning, sober, she would go right back to hating me, which was why it was so hard to let go now. But it was all fake, she didn’t actually want me. Clenching my jaw, I took a step back from Cami, who looked from one to another in confusion.

“What’s going on?” She asked softly.

She sounded unsure, if not a bit afraid. It hurt my heart somehow.

“We’re gonna go back to the others, alright?” Luke replied gently.

She frowned, pouting. 

“I liked it here though.”

“I’m sure you did,” Luke chuckled. He gave me a look. “But it’s over now, okay? We gave you guys seven minutes to have fun, and now we’re letting this go and going back to normal, alright?”

“Alright,” Cami sighed.

Luke looked at me intently, and I shrugged. It wasn’t like I could do anything anyway. We went back to the circle of friends, who immediately started whistling and joking around when they saw us.

“Damn Cami, good job!” Jeremy called out, looking at my neck.

I put a hand to it and realized that she had probably left me a huge hickey from all the working at my throat. God, this was not helping my situation. Ignoring the giggled comments of the others, I sat down where I had before. In front of me, Luke sat Cami down next to him. I saw her go for a bottle lying around, but he slapped her hand away, making her stick her tongue out to him. She was so freaking adorable. Then she insisted on sitting on his lap and I looked away.

As we continued playing, I watched out of the corner of my eye how Luke made her laugh and frown in turn. He really did know how to handle her drunk, I realized, and for some reason that made me sad. How many times had he held her like this? How many times had—I cut off the thought. Instead I turned my attention back to the game. It was the girl next to Luke’s turn, the brunette Cami always sat with in French.

“Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Do you have a crush on someone?”

The girl’s eyes widened and she blushed slightly, suddenly very interested in her hands.

“Um…I uh yeah…”

“What?” Ethan exclaimed, looking shocked. “Who?”

I looked a little at the boy. Despite him having tried to beat Mike up, I’d never hated him the way I did Luke. Maybe because he’d sort of stood in the sidelines. Maybe simply because his face was less annoying. I didn’t know. In the meantime, the girl was full on blushing.

“That’s not the question, I only had to answer to one question!”

“Fine, fine,” Ethan huffed. “This is not over!”

Letting out a breath, Lilah turned to Luke, giving him an anxious look from under her lashes. Obvious much?

“Truth or dare, Luke?”

“Dare,” he smirked.

“Alright, I uh…” She thought for a second before her face lit up with a mischievous smile. “I dare you to grant drunk-Cami three wishes.”

“What? You can’t mean that!”

“Oh come on! It won’t be that bad. It’s fun, and it’ll make her happy!”

“I get three wishes?” Cami asked, all excited.

“See? Look at how happy she is.”

“I’m not a child,” Cami suddenly spat, surprising us all. “Don’t treat me like one.”

Just as suddenly as she had become angry, she went back to smiling.

“Okay, my first wish is give me my bottle back.”

Luke easily turned around and handed her an empty bottle.

“That’s not my bottle!”

“Yeah it is, you finished it.”

“Oh. Then give me my new bottle.”

Groaning, Luke grabbed an unidentified bottle from the stash behind him and handed it to her. Cami put it to her lips and immediately grimaced.

“Don’t give me limonade you idiot.”

“You really shouldn’t drink anymore,” Luke half-reasoned, half-pleaded with her.

“Your dare is you give me what I want, Luke!”

He sighed deeply and whispered a few words in her ear, making her sigh somewhat in defeat.

“Okay, then. Beer.”

He gave her a bottle of beer and she placed it on the floor in front of them.

“And I want to uh… I want to change places.”

Luke shrugged.

“Sure,” he said, lifting her up from his lap and next to him.

She immediately stood up and started to make her way across the circle, her footing a bit unsure.

“Where are you going?” Luke asked wearily.

“I’m gonna sit on Calum’s lap,” she answered easily.

Wait, what?

“No you won’t! It’s my dare, not Calum’s.”

“Exactly, so stop being such a pain,” she retorted. “Calum doesn’t mind, does he?”

She turned her bright blue eyes to me hopefully.

“Uh…nope.”

“Of course he doesn’t,” Luke rolled his eyes. “He’d jump at any opportunity to get a girl in his bed.”

My mouth fell open and I could feel my blood start boiling. All the other friends were silent as they watched the drama unfoil. I could almost hear them asking for popcorn. Cami looked back at Luke, and I watched in utter amazement as she took my defense against her best friend.

“That was way out of line Luke!” For someone so drunk, she sure knew how to use her words. “And you know what, even if he was a manwhore, which he probably is but that’s a problem for another time, I’m not throwing myself at him! I just want to fucking sit on his lap because voilà! Arrête de me faire chier, je suis pas ta fille et je fais ce que je veux, putain!“

And with that, she went over to me and smiled slightly. I sat in pure shock at her words (not to mention how hot she sounded yelling angry French words), and so did Luke. I numbly reached out for her and she sat across my legs, relaxing her back against mine. Immediately I put my arms around her waist and tugged her close. I didn’t have anything in mind, really. She was completely wasted and I knew she didn’t actually want me that way, but it felt good just holding her like this. She glared at the speechless Luke for a bit before taking the bottle of beer to her lips. She then wordlessly handed it to me and turned to her friends.

“So, are you guys playing or what?”

There was an awkward, hushed laugh, and the game continued. Cami and I shared the beer, only taking small sips at a time, as people continued spilling their dirty secrets and doing the most random dares. When came my turn, I hesitated a bit before choosing truth, despite myself. I hated truths, but I didn’t wanna do dares because it would most likely mean getting up and there was no way I was getting out of my comfortable position.

“Okay,” Jeremy said. “Have you ever slept with someone you had feelings for?”

“I don’t do feelings,” I replied simply, ignoring the slight gnaw in my heart as I said the words. 

But it was true. I didn’t do feelings. Yet somehow Cami had managed to dodge my defenses and break my walls, that sneaky little shit. Speaking of the devil, she lazily shifted her position so that she was sitting sideways on my lap and pulled her legs under her. Her arms went around my neck and she nuzzled her face to my chest. I exhaled softly and tightened my hold on her, enjoying the way she fit into me like a puzzle-piece. Somehow cuddling with Mike had never felt so comforting and, just, good.

I completely detached my attention from the others as I listened to her calm breaths, softly tracing circles on her back. People eventually started leaving, and I merely muttered a goodbye as Jeremy left with his friends.

“It’s 4am,” Luke said. “We should probably go…”

“The night is young!” Cami’s brown-haired friend giggled, obviously a bit intoxicated.

“You can’t drive in this state,” Luke stated worriedly.

“I can take her,” Ethan proposed, still holding a blonde by his hand.

“You have your car, though,” he pointed out.

“I can just go back and get it tomorrow,” Ethan said before turning to me. “No?”

I shrugged.

“Don’t ask me. It’s not my house.”

“I think you should drive Lilah,” Cami spoke up, startling us all.

I’d thought she was asleep. Her arms slipped from my neck and stood up, stumbling a bit. Immediately I was on my feet, holding an arm out warily in case she tripped over her own feet. She didn’t exactly look sober yet, and add tiredness to the mix…

“What? But Lilah and us live on direct opposite parts of town. I can’t steal her car to get us home afterwards,” Luke protested.

“You can just sleep over at her place.”

Lilah’s face lit up.

“Yeah! And we can watch movies and have fun and stuff!”

“But what about you?” Luke asked. “My mom knows I’ll be out but you’re dead if you’re not home in the morning.”

“I’ll drive her,” I said.

“Um, no.”

“Why not?”

“Luuuke it’s a good idea!” Cami whined. “He’ll drive me on Betty! Right?” She turned to me, wild hope in her face.

I blinked at the change of mood, but nodded vigorously.

“Yup, we’ll take Betty.”

“Betty’s awesome! Please, Luke…” She pouted. “Plus, I demand it as my third wish! I kept one for later,” she giggled. “So yeah, now you sleep at Lilah’s and Calum can drive me home! It’s perfect! Plus didn’t you have a tutor thing tomorrow morning anyway?”

Luke gave a huge sigh, rubbing his temples.

“You are such a pain when you’re drunk, Cami.”

“Come on, just admit your defeat,” Ethan grinned. 

Luke brightened suddenly.

“Hey, can’t you take her home instead of Calum?”

I could tell Ethan was about to nod when the blonde whispered something in his ear. He opened his mouth; closed it; frowned at his girlfriend; then turned back to Luke at her nod.

“Um, actually I can’t. Plans. You know.” 

Luke frowned.

“What?”

“They wanna fuck,” I rolled my eyes, ignoring their gasps. “Really dude. Just get off your high horse and drive the girl home. You know you want to. And stop looking at me like I’m a monster, it’s not like I’m gonna rape Cami. She just wants to fucking ride a motorcycle.”

Cami nodded vigorously at my words.

“Yup! Don’t be a killjoy, Luke! Plus the dare.”

Luke rolled his eyes and finally cracked a grin.

“Fine, fine. Be safe.”

He pulled her in a long hug (me, jealous? No…) and grabbed Lilah’s hand.

“Stop pulling me,” I could hear him say as they left the house.

Ethan and his girlfriend said their goodbyes to Cami and waved awkwardly at me. They were on the point of leaving when the blonde turned her head towards me and mouthed: ‘You’re welcome’. I smiled. Whoever this girl was, I liked her.

After sending a text to James saying I was leaving the party – no way I was looking for him through this mess – I lay an arm around Cami’s waist and led her to where I’d parked the bike. She grinned brightly as she saw Betty and wouldn’t stop twirling around and humming to a song as I tried to put the helmet on her head.

“Can’t you just stand still?”

She pouted at me and I took the opportunity to attach the helmet.

“You’re a meanie,” she said very seriously.

I stifled a laugh.

“A meanie, huh?”

“Yes. You don’t let me sing and dance and be happy!”

“Just get on the bike, you crazy girl.”

Grumbling, she climbed on and put her arms around me as I started the engine. Fifteen minutes later, we were at her house. All the lights were off, and I looked over to Cami with a frown.

“Do your parents know you’re out?”

She nodded her head, eyes overly wide.

“Yeah, but I said I’d be back before two. They probably went to sleep before, but I’m dead if they catch me now.”

I glanced at my watch. Yep, she definitely was.

“Wait, didn’t you say something about a tree and your window?”

“Oh yeah! It’s right here,” she said, pulling me around the house. “I think I left my window open. I do that a lot. It’s nice when there’s a bit of wind because Sydney is hot like oh my god. I knew it would be but I never thought it would be this bad. I think it’s because the people here are hot. Like, it has to count for something, right?”  
I tuned out her rambling as I helped her up the large tree to her window. It wasn’t a difficult climb, and the window was, in fact, open. I entered at her suit, checking that the door to her bedroom was closed before shushing her. She huffed but stopped talking, instead falling back on her bed.

“I don’t wanna sleep in my dress but I don’t wanna look for something to wear in my closet. It’s so far away,” she complained.

“Your outfit doesn’t look comfortable,” I noted. “You should probably change.”

She opened her eyes and peeked at me, her gaze falling to my top.

“Oh no.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please,” she almost begged. “It’s my favorite shirt and I wanted to buy it at the store but they didn’t have any left and then I tried online but the shipping is so expensive and please?”

She gave me puppy-dog eyes and I gave up.

“Fine, whatever.”

I quickly shrugged my shirt off, noticing how her eyes took in my half-naked body. Oh no please don’t. It was hard enough restraining myself without her staring at me like that.

“Go change,” I said quickly.

She grabbed the shirt from my hands and disappeared in a room I guessed was a bathroom. Not knowing what to do with myself, I sat on the edge of the bed and wondered how she would act next Monday. Would she still be mad? Would she be even angrier because of what had happened tonight? Or had she somehow forgiven me in the course of these past hours? Cami shook me out of my thoughts as she lightly padded back into the bedroom.

I froze. Just. Completely. Froze. She had taken off her make-up, tights and dress, but left the half-destroyed fishnet tights on for some reason. Her red-brown hair fell in wavy tangles down her shoulders, and my All Time Low tank reached only to the tops of her thighs, leaving very little to the imagination. Not to mention that she had also taken off her bra, and she was showing more side-boob than my body could handle.

Jumping to my feet, I swallowed and chuckled nervously, thanking god she was too drunk to notice anything.

“Yeah, um, I’m gonna go now. Bye-bye!”

“Bye?” She answered with a confused frown.

“Sleep well!”

I almost threw myself out the window in my hurry to get away.


	27. Last friday night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last update of the day.  
> Don't forget to leave comments and kuddos!! <3

CHAPTER 27: Last Friday Night – Katie Perry

Cami’s POV:

I woke up with a pounding in my head. What? I never got headaches. I must really have been drinking a lot. The only other time I’d had a headache from drinking was after having sex with a guy. My heart dropped. Surely I hadn’t…

I tried to assess the situation. I was in my own bedroom, which was a good thing. I was alone in my bed, which was even better. I was even clothed! Yoohoo. Then I actually looked at what I was wearing, and my mouth fell open. I recognized this shirt. It was Calum’s.

Oh no. Taking deep breaths not to panic, I tried to remember as much as I could from the party, but my hangover wasn’t helping. I recalled playing spin-the-bottle, then truth or dare… I’d dragged Calum along to play with us. I also remembered something about accidentally telling everyone I thought he was hot… And then…oh shit. I’d made out with him! And I had been very, very into it. Just thinking about made me shiver. Holy hell had he been good… And then I’d sat on his lap for a while? I couldn’t exactly remember that last part of the night, but the fact that I was wearing his shirt at the moment was not a good thing. Plus the fact that knowing my drunken self, if he’d been that good just kissing, I would not have minded doing more with him.

I anxiously grabbed hold of my phone, my stomach dropping when I saw 5 missed calls from Luke, and a ton of texts from Lilah. Had I disappeared on them because I wanted to hook up with Calum? My nerves stretched thin, I quickly typed out a message to the source of my worry.

To Cal-Pal: What happened last night???

His answer came almost immediately.

From Cal-Pal: we went to a party…

To Cal-Pal: Calum im fucking serious what happened?!

From Cal-Pal: ok ok calm down jeez. how much do you remember?

To Cal-Pal: I guess up to falling asleep on ur lap?? Pls tell me there was nothing more

From Cal-Pal: um…I took u home

My stomach dropped.

To Cal-Pal: What??

To Cal-Pal: How could u Calum I was fuxking drunk!

To Cal-Pal: did you seriously… Oh my god

From Cal-Pal: woah calm down! I didn’t do anything. I just drove u home and left

I breathed in relief despite my lingering doubts.

To Cal-Pal: why am I wearing your top then?

From Cal-Pal: oh idk, maybe bc u kept begging for it? 

From Cal-Pal: do you really think I would do sth like that? Who tf do you think I am??

To Cal-Pal: well I wouldn’t be surprised!

Instantly I felt I’d gone too far.

From Cal-Pal: no, you wouldn’t would you?

I could literally feel the bitterness dripping off his words, and I felt guilt pulling at my chest. I wasn’t usually one to jump to conclusions, but what was I supposed to think anyway? He was known as a manwhore, and I’d seen him leave the girl’s bathroom after probably getting a quickie just a few days ago! Not to mention how he always had thirsty girls texting him and begging for his attention, despite his having a girlfriend. Surely having sex with a drunk girl wasn’t something he’d be shocked by.

Still, I felt bad knowing that I’d hurt him. I sent him a few texts saying I was sorry, but he didn’t answer. Sighing at my own stupidity, I dialed Luke instead. To my surprise, it was Lilah who picked up the phone.

“Oh my god.” She said. “Get ready for my rant. So yesterday you were completely drunk but you somehow managed to get Luke to drive tipsy-me home and stay the night and oh my god he was so cute giving me Tylenol and making me drink some water and tucking me in and this morning I woke up and he was next to me on the bed and he had his pants on but oh my god he was shirtless! Do you realize? He was shirtless! Do you realize that your best friend is a god? He is a sex god Cami. Help me, because I’m dead. I am dead. And he’s taking a shower in my house right now. In my house, Cami. A shower. What is life even?”

It was all I could do not to giggle at Lilah’s gushes. 

“I don’t know what you should do, Lilah. Maybe try to act like a normal human being and thank him for taking care of you with a cute smile? And pray he doesn’t notice how you’re staring at him?”

“Yeah I could try…”

“Or you could just jump his bones. Just saying.”

“What?” She half-screeched, half-laughed. “You are out of your mind. Anyway, what happened with Calum after he drove you home? I need details, girl.”

“Um yeah about that… I didn’t really remember so when I woke up in his shirt, I had a slight freak-out session. But—”

“Wait, what? Back up! You were wearing his shirt?”

“Am wearing, actually,” I corrected, glancing down at myself.

I hadn’t bothered to change, too lazy to get something from my wardrobe. Plus it was comfortable and I really liked it. Not to mention that it smelled like—okay.

“Anyway, I freaked out and texted him demanding to know what had happened, right? And turns out he just drove me home and gave me the shirt cause I kept asking for it and he got annoyed.”

“Oh,” Lilah breathed, sounding relieved.

“Except now he’s pissed at me because I thought he’d taken advantage of me while I was drunk.”

“Ah that’s shit. But I’m sure he’ll forgive you, you can still get the Plan to work.”

I blinked. Right. The Plan. Before I could muster up an answer, she whimpered into the phone.

“Oh my god Luke is getting out of the shower!” She whisper-shouted. “His hair is wet, I repeat, his hair is wet! I am dead. I am dead. Holy shit he’s headed this way. Pray for me and my sanity. Bye!”

She hung up and I was left staring at the phone in my hand. Ookay… With a sigh, I pulled a hand through my hair and went to get a shower. The warm water somehow helped with my headache, as well as loosened the tight knot of anxiety in my stomach. I’d just talk to Calum and excuse myself tomorrow. There was no reason to beat myself up about this. Plus, considering the amount of things he’d done to me and that I’d forgiven… I stopped the water and wrapped a shower around me before heading to my dresser. Since I’d most likely spend the day lounging around in my bed, I picked out a pair of gray sweats and was about to take a random shirt when I looked back at Calum’s, which I’d left on the ground. Should I? It wasn’t like anyone would ever know. So I just shrugged it on again.

Around half-an-hour after I’d woken up, I heard my mom call me from the kitchen. With a groan, I left my comfortable bed and trudged downstairs. Jane and my parents were seated at the table, eating breakfast.

“Hey,” my dad said. “How was the party?”

“It was nice,” I replied as I took place at the table. “Where’s Sam?”

“On his way down. What time did you get back?”

“Uh around 2am I think,” I lied easily.

Sam finally arrived, his eyes still glued to the screen of phone.

“Nice of you to join us,” my mom said sarcastically.

He ignored her but still put away his phone as he spread some nutella on his bread.

“How was your date with Louisa?” I asked him.

His piece of bread dropped from his hand and he stared at me in surprise.

“You had a date?” Jane and my parents asked in total sync.

I chuckled.

“Yep! And he sorta forgot to mention it to me. It isn’t like Louisa is one of my friends or anything.”

“Oh shut up,” he groaned. 

“What, are you embarrassed? Why didn’t you want me to know?”

“Because you’d start questioning me, just like you’re doing now. ‘How was the date? Were you gentlemanly? Where did you take her? Do you like her’?” He imitated me, his voice horribly high-pitched.

“I do not need to ask you if you like her,” I scoffed. “I think it’s quite obvious from the way you’re attached to your phone.”

His cheeks burned as he glared at me.

“I think it’s cute,” Jane quipped up.

I shrugged.

“Well, she’s an awesome person. He doesn’t really deserve her, but you know…”

“Fuck off.”

“Sammy, language,” my mom scolded.

“Will you quit calling me that?” He asked in annoyance before looking at me evilly. “So how’s it going with Calum huh?”

“What?” I spluttered. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, is that Mali’s brother?” Jane asked excitedly. “Cause I could definitely feel something going on!”

“What are you on about? There’s nothing going on!”

I mean, I thought we’d had sex this morning, but ya know…

“Right…that’s why you were getting all cozy on the sofa.”

“Cami? Is there something you want to tell us?” My dad asked, an edge to his voice.

“Oh how the tables have turned,” my brother grinned.

I sighed dramatically and rolled my eyes.

“No, nothing and I mean nothing is going on between Calum and I. We were just partners for an English project.”

“Uh-huh,” Jane smirked, “and that’s why you went on a date and kissed him.”

“How do you even remember this?” I exclaimed, embarrassed. “It was a fake-date, and the kisses were a in-the-heat-of-the-moment kind of thing.”

“Oh, so there were several…”

“Ugh just shut up! He’s a flirt and I’m a flirt, that’s all there is to it. We don’t like each other. Sam is just trying to get back at me for mentioning his date, which, by the way, he should be shouting on the rooftops about because Louisa is amazing.”

This thankfully diverted my sister’s attention back to Sam, and I was able to finish eating in peace. This family was going to drive me mad. Seriously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I = Lilah


	28. Roads untravelled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI HELLO I AM BACK (IN BLACK) WITH SOME UPDATES

CHAPTER 28: Roads Untravelled – Linkin Park

Cami’s POV:

On Monday morning, I spent my classes talking to Luke about what had happened between Lilah and him on Saturday. Apparently Lilah’s parents hadn’t asked any questions when he came home with their slightly drunk daughter and had just rolled their eyes and let him in. He’d made her drink some water and eat something before putting her to bed. She’d insisted on a movie and they watched The Lion King until she fell asleep. In the morning, he’d taken a shower and they’d eaten together before working on some math. Apparently Lilah had fallen asleep midway through an exercise, and he hadn’t had the heart to wake her up.

“She looked like a kitten,” he insisted again, making me roll my eyes.

“You look like a lovestruck puppy right now.”

“I don’t love her!” He protested loudly. “I might…I might like her,” he admitted, the tops of his cheeks flushing.

“Aww, you’re so cute.”

“I’m not cute,” he grimaced. “Plus I don’t think she likes me back…”

“Luke, I’m just gonna put this out there: Lilah hates math. Really, really does. And she asks you for tutoring anyway.”

“That has nothing to do with it! She needs tutoring to get better grades.”

“Yeah, and so do I. But you don’t see me asking for tutoring lessons, whether or not I suck.”

“You think…” He let the words hang, looking at me hopefully.

I gave him a small, mysterious smile.

“I’m saying you have nothing to lose.”

Despite my cool attitude, on the inside, I was whooping in joy. My OTP was so close to becoming legit! When the bell rang, I went over to my French class a bit anxiously. I wanted to patch things up with Calum. For the Plan, of course, but also because…I didn’t know. I wanted to.

When I walked into the classroom, I looked around and spotted the seat I usually sat at. Giving Lilah a small smile, a walked to where Calum was sitting instead. He was busy texting someone, as usual, and only looked up when I sat down next to him. His face darkened, his sharp jaw setting in anger.

“Hey Cal,” I said casually as I took up my books, knowing the nickname would get a reaction out of him.

“Oh we’re back to Cal now huh?” His voice was toneless, his face giving nothing away.

“Yup. Did you do the homework?”

“What? No.”

“Bad Calum,” I answered breezily. “Better give it a look before she calls you out.”

He shot me a look of pure confusion before taking a look at what I’d done.

“So,” I started in a cheerful voice, “you haven’t answered my messages. Are we going back to last week’s stage where you ignore me forever? I thought we got past that yesterday.”

“Oh sorry,” he replied sarcastically, “I thought I sexually abused you yesterday.”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure I was in on it,” I smirked. “Then again I do get a bit um…let’s say touchy-feely when drunk.”

“You mean the dare?”

“Yeah,” I smirked. “You gotta admit we were pretty good.”

He finally cracked a smile.

“I admit it.” He turned to me completely and pointed at the side of his neck. “You also forgot to mention you were Dracula.”

My eyes widened at the hickey, which was still blood red even though a day and a half had gone by.

“Wow.”

“Yeah, you sure know how to mark your territory,” he chuckled.

“I wasn’t marking my territory!” I exclaimed, slightly embarrassed, and slapped his arm. “Why didn’t you hide it?”

He shrugged.

“Maybe I like you claiming me as your territory.”

I rolled my eyes and scoffed at his arrogant smirk.

“Right. Of course.”

He dropped the cocky act and sighed before slightly biting his lip.

“I don’t know if you remember anything Cami but…I swear I didn’t do anything after that. It was just the dare.”

“I know.”

“And about last week, I… I don’t know what went through my mind. This whole friend thing is still new to me, and um…yeah it’s not working out perfectly considering I practically assaulted you yesterday, but that’s not fair cause you were very very hot and I have hormones okay? Anyway I just didn’t know what to do and how to act and yeah it’s a shitty excuse but it’s all I have so…” He looked up at me half in hope, half in fear.

“What do you mean I was hot?” I asked in my best bitchy imitation. “Are you saying I don’t look good normally?”

He let out an incredulous giggle.

“After all of that, this is all you have to say?”

“Um…yep. I’ve decided to forget all about your terrible decisions from last week and start over.”

His smile wavered before he nodded.

“And uh, could you like, explain to me what we’re doing?” He asked, referring to the class.

I stifled a laugh and started explaining – in much simpler words than the teacher – how French past tenses worked.

...

I was still laughing at the way Calum had blown up and declared that French grammar was bullshit (I couldn’t help but agree), when Lilah assaulted me, followed closely by Louisa. Calum gave them a confused glance before smiling sheepishly at me and heading down the corridor.

“Okay, what was that?” Lilah demanded. “Could I have a heads-up next time you ditch me for our favorite fuckboy? What did you talk about? Are you guys okay now? Is he in love with you yet?”

I dragged a hand over my face, cringing at her never-ending questions.

“Since when do you even know him?” Louisa asked loudly.

“Oh, they’re friends,” Lilah filled her in. “Also they made out yesterday.”

“What? I’m away one party, one party, and this happens!”

I rolled my eyes at her antics and shrugged.

“It’s really not that big a thing. Shit happens at parties, it doesn’t matter.”

“Yeah but what if he plans on seducing you and leaving you like Mike did with my sister?” Louisa asked in distress. “And what do you mean you guys are friends? Since when does Calum have friends that are hot girls? How can you be friends with him when he’s your bestie’s archenemy? And how do I not know about this? Do you like him? Why did Lilah ask if he was in love with you? Is he in love with you? Did you have sex? On a scale of one to ten, how good was he?”

I stared. Blinked. Repeated.

“Wow. You just get crazier every time I see you.”

“So?”

“Um… We had an English project together so we became friends. I didn’t tell you because it never came up. Luke has nothing to say about who I’m friends with, plus he’s okay with it. Lilah is stupid, and I didn’t have sex with him but his kisses are way off the scale.”

“So basically you’re in love with the fuckboy,” Louisa concluded, widening her eyes dramatically.

“No I’m not! How do you get that from what I said?”

“I don’t. I just ship you.”

“I give up on you,” I said decidedly before walking towards the cafeteria.

“You can’t give up on me when you never believed in me in the first place,” Louisa argued.

“True,” I grinned. “So did you like the date with my bro?”

“Oh my god I know you probably don’t wanna hear this but your brother is seriously hot and cute and I think I like him,” she rushed out.

“Aww,” Lilah cooed. “That’s so cute. Now all of us single girls have crushes!”

“Um, what?” I asked.

“Yeah! Louisa likes your brother, Rebecca likes Ashton, I like Luke and you like Calum!”

“I don’t like Calum!” I protested just as Louisa exclaimed:

“Oh my god you finally admit that you have a crush on Luke!”

“Jesus anyone would if they’d seen him half-naked,” Lilah gushed, pretend-fanning herself.

“What? You saw him half-naked? Details, girl, details!”

As the two girls passionately discussed what had happened at Lilah’s place yesterday, I managed to guide them towards the cafeteria. We queued along with everyone else and I randomly started making conversation with a girl from my Physics class, complaining about the ridiculous amount of homework. Finally we managed to grab some food and I waved a goodbye to the girl before heading to our usual table. Luke, Jeremy and Rebecca were already there, and the two girls by my side fell into a suspicious silence. Rebecca frowned.

“What were you two giggling about that you don’t want us to know?”

“Oh, nothing,” Louisa shrugged, smiling devilishly at her sister. “How’s Ashton?”

“What do you mean how’s Ashton?” Rebecca blushed.

“Oh come on, I’m not deaf. I know exactly what happened Saturday night,” she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Rebecca, who blushed an even deeper shade of red.

The whole table exploded in a chorus of ‘What?’s.

“Oh shut up,” Rebecca said. “You wanna know what happened? Fine. Ash drove me home, and then I told him it was late and he could just as well stay and one thing led to another and…yeah.”

“Oh my god!” Lilah screeched.

“Was he good?” Jeremy asked curiously. “He looks like he’d be rough, being a drummer and all.”

“Can we like, not talk about it?” Rebecca blushed again.

“But just… Is everything’s okay between you?” Luke asked, staring at Rebecca as if to check for any injuries. “I don’t have to beat anyone up?”

I guessed despite liking Lilah, he was still very protective of her, and wouldn’t forget what had happened with Mike anytime soon.

“No, I’m good,” Rebecca smiled. “He was very sweet. Is very sweet.”

“So are you guys dating now?” Lilah asked curiously.

“Um…I guess? It’s not very clear yet. But we’re meeting for coffee tomorrow so…”

“Did you mean, Netflix and chill?” Jeremy smirked.

“You know, I never understood the whole deal with ‘Netflix and chill’,” I started complaining. “If I invite someone over for Netflix and chill I don’t mean sex. I mean Netflix and chill.”

An argument immediately erupted about whether it was a good expression and where it had come from. Meanwhile, I sat closer to Jeremy and asked him about the blond guy he’d been with at the party. 

“Oh Gabe? Yeah we’re just friends.”

“Right,” I rolled my eyes. “I might have been drunk, but I’m pretty sure I remember his tongue down your throat. Remind me again how that qualifies as ‘just friends’?”

“It was a dare,” Jeremy shrugged, though his cheeks tinted pink.

“Uh-huh,” I smirked.

“Hey, you’re one to talk! You had a lot of fun with Calum in that room…”

It was my turn to protest.

“I was drunk! I get a bit touchy!”

“Tell me about it,” Jeremy snickered. “But I was drunk too, and I also happen to be a horny drunk. But I wasn’t the one who then sat on his lap and cuddled him for the rest of the party.”

“Oh uh…” I was momentarily at a loss for words. “I mean, he’s comfortable?”

“Oh, do you sit on Calum’s lap a lot?” Jeremy raised an eyebrow, still smirking at me.

“You know what, this conversation is over!” I said loudly, rising from the table. “I have English right now.”

“Have fun with Calum!” Lilah called, and I flipped her off before leaving the cafeteria.

...

As it turns out, I did. While the teacher talked about the romantic poets, Calum told me about the poems he used to write as a kid. He could recite them from memory, and they were so bad and adorable that he had me crying with laughter. I felt sort of bad for not listening to the teacher when I really love English, but I already knew all about Keats, and his poems had never entertained as much as watching Calum try to keep in his laughter in as he told me the story of a turtle ‘smalla than a bug’.

“I was eight!” He defended himself as I desperately tried to catch my breath.

“Then there was a bomb and it was on the turtle’s belly and one day or another it exploded and the turtle it died,” I wheezed out, mocking his words.

“I was eight!”

“I will never let you forget this!” I guffawed.

“I should never have told you this,” he groaned.

“Damn right you shouldn’t have! This is perfect blackmail material!”

He smirked.

“You don’t need that. I’m sure you have…better ways of persuation than a turtle.”

“It’s smalla than a bug,” I pointed out with a devious grin.

“True,” he conceded as if I’d just come with a perfectly reasonable argument. His eyes gleamed suddenly and his smirk widened as he leaned a bit closer to me. “Hey, wanna know what’s not smalla than a bug?”

I laughed at his ridiculous seduction attempt and pushed him back into his chair playfully.

“Your ego?”

“Touché.”

“Oh my god your Frech is just getting better and better!”

“It’s your influence babe,” he winked.

“Hey, did you think about those tutor lessons?”

He frowned slightly and bit on his full lip. My gaze fell to his mouth and memories from the other night assaulted my sense, making me suck in a breath. I had to forcefully drag my eyes back up to his, praying to god he hadn’t noticed my slip. His cocky expression told me all I needed to know. Of course he noticed slips, he was expert on the whole thing. It was almost his job to notice.

“I think I’ll take you up on the offer, yeah,” he said, his voice a bit husky.

Somehow he made it sound like a totally different kind of offer. I swallowed hard and nodded my head.

“Okay. My place or yours?”

His gaze intensified and I realized how my question could be interpreted. Stupid stupid me. And then I reminded myself of the Plan and how this was totally working in my favor. It was obvious he was attracted to me, but also that he liked me as a person. I just needed him to make the leap from sort of liking me to being really emotionally attached.

“Mine.”

“When?” Thankfully my thinking had calmed the raging hormones inside of me and I sounded normal and relaxed.

“Friday?”

I nodded in agreement and turned my attention to the teacher. Throughout the rest of the hour, I hopelessly tried to concentrate on what she was saying as Calum hummed under his breath and doodled on my notebook.

“Hey do you still have my tee-shirt?” He asked out of blue, his dark eyes peeking up from under his lashes.

“Um yeah,” I said.

I fought back a blush as I thought at how I’d worn it through all of yesterday. He definitely didn’t need to know that.

“Are you planning on giving it back anytime soon?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“If you think I’m gonna show up to school and hand you your tee in front of everyone, think again,” I scoffed.

“What? Would you be ashamed?” He asked, a hint of hurt in his words.

“You know what they’d think.”

“Is that so bad?”

I rolled my eyes.

“Calum, may I remind you that you have a girlfriend? And even if you didn’t, I don’t exactly wanna be seen as one of your hookups.”

He detached his gaze from me and nodded shortly. 

“I get it.”

He was obviously upset for some reason. I sighed.

“Cal…”

“Never mind. You can just bring it back Friday.”

“Not happening,” I said happily.

He looked back up with an adorably confused frown.

“What?”

“Say your goodbyes to that shirt,” I shrugged. “You’re never seeing it again.”

“What? But it’s one of my favorites!”

“Too bad!”

“You can’t just never give it back!”

“Watch me,” I smirked. “I told you I loved it, and you’re not getting it back.”

“Just wait ‘til you wear it at school. I’ll rip it off you and steal it back,” Calum warned with a dangerous look in his eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna wear it to school. It’s too big.”

“Then why do you even want it?”

“Cause it’s the most comfy thing ever. I wear it to bed. With nothing underneath.”

Calum’s eyes widened and he shot me a seriously-I-can’t-believe-you look. I stuck out my tongue teasingly to him and he dragged his hand across his face.

“Fuck my life,” he muttered.


	29. Radio

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> give me some feedback pls? no? okay .-.

CHAPTER 29: Radio – Lana del Rey

Cami’s POV:

Wednesday, Luke and I had just sat down at our usual table for lunch when he stated:

“I think I’m gonna ask Lilah out today.”

I choked on my water and started coughing.

“Oh my god Luke that is so not something you tell me randomly when I’ve been waiting for this moment forever.”

He scrounged his nose up.

“You’ve been waiting for this moment forever?”

“Well yeah! I always thought you guys would be great together.”

“Even when I liked Rebecca?”

“Of course! You and Lilah have been my OTP since I came here!”

“Your OTP is Destiel,” Luke pointed out.

I had to admit that was true. Luke and I had finally started watching Supernatural last week and we were already on the fourth season. All I had to say was Destiel five-ever.

“Well, my real life OTP.”

“Hannah and Oli Sykes?”

“Ugh you know me too well. I mean I really really shipped you, okay?”

He grinned.

“Okay.”

“So when are you gonna do it? How are you gonna do it?”

His smile disappeared immediately and his eyes widened.

“I had to do something special? I just thought I could casually ask!”

“Oh! Um…”

“Is that bad? It’s just so you know, if she turns me down I can say I meant as friends…”

“Boy, she is not gonna turn you down,” I promised him with a wicked smile. “But no, you don’t need to do anything special, she’s not really that kind of girl. I just thought you’d be way more nervous than this.”

He leaned over to me and whispered dramatically.

“I’m in denial.”

Just then, Rebecca put her plate down next to us and took a seat. She looked at how close our faces were and raised an eyebrow.

“Am I interrupting something?”

“Of course not,” I replied smoothly. “Where are the others?”

“I don’t know man, I just came out of my Bio class, but I think they’re having an English test right now. Poor them. Mrs. Wecksmorth is such a bitch.”

“How did your talk with Ashton go?” I asked her, knowing she’d met up with him to discuss their relationship yesterday.

She blushed slightly and played with the bracelets on her wrist.

“He asked me to be his girlfriend.”

“And?”

“Well I said yes, duh,” she said a bit breathily, her smile huge.

“Aww that is so cute. You should totally thank me for introducing the two of you.”

Her eyes widened.

“Oh my god that is so true! I never realized you were the one who brought us together! Wow. Thank you so much!”

I giggled and mock-bowed.

“Very welcome.”

“Yeah yeah,” Luke said in amusement, “if you’d just tagged along one of the numerous times I tried to drag you to the video store, you would’ve met him before.”

Rebecca laughed.

“Yeah, but I was with Mike back then.”

“Pfff, you totally would have left him for Ashton,” I waved my hand dismissingly. “Mike’s got nothing on that drummer.”

“True,” she conceded. “He is so nice to me you have no idea. And really really funny. I love his laugh by the way, it’s the best thing oh my god—“

“Can you not?” Louisa asked grouchily as she slumped down next to her sister, looking absolutely drained. “I just had a test with the devil impersonated and I don’t think I can handle listening to yet another one of your rambles about Ashton.”

Rebecca’s eyebrows shot up but she just shrugged as Jenifer, Lilah, Ethan and Jeremy sat down at the table with identical weary expressions. They picked at their food and Lilah sighed loudly.

“This test was so shit I actually lost my appetite.”

“Imagine that,” I smirked.

She shot me a dark look and I stuck my tongue out to her, hoping to light up her face. She merely rolled her eyes, but I swear I saw the hint of a smile at her lips. The rest of the table chuckled.

“Can you pass me the water?” Lilah asked Luke.

He nodded and as he handed it to her, he said oh-so-casually.

“Hey, wanna go on a date with me?”

The water slipped from her hand and she stared at him. The table went completely silent as we all held our breaths.

“I…what?”

“Wanna go on a date with me?” His tone was still calm, but I noticed how the hand that wasn’t reaching across the table was white from holding his fork too tightly.

He sent me a quick, almost panicky this-is-your-fault-now-what-do-I-do look on the side before focusing back on a blushing Lilah.

“I…um…yeah! Yeah I would…like that,” she finally managed to get out, tripping over the words.

Luke grinned goofily, his blue eyes shining as he exhaled in relief.

“Great! Does Friday work for you?”

“Yeah! Yeah, sure anytime,” Lilah rushed.

She sent me a wide-eyed look like she couldn’t believe what was happening, and I choked on my laugh. I glanced the table to see Jenifer and Rebecca smiling widely, Ethan patting Luke’s back in approval and Jeremy snapping pictures.

“This is going on Insta,” he informed us, interrupting the sweet moment. “Hashtag fluff between the awkward penguin and the awkwarder hamster!”

“We’re all in relationships!” Louisa gasped out as realization hit her hard.

“What?” Ethan asked, eyes widening. “Did I miss something?”

“Well, there’s you and Jenifer, Ashton and Rebecca, Luke and Lilah—“

Cue to awkward choking on Lilah’s side of the table.

“We’re not exactly in a relationship… I just said yes to a date! I don’t know if…” She sent an anxious glance at Luke, who was staring at her wide-eyed.

“Oh please,” Louisa rolled her eyes. “We all know you like each other, just become girlfriend and boyfriend already! Anyway, then there’s Sam and me—“

“Who’s Sam?” Jeremy asked in confusion.

“My brother,” I rolled my eyes. “So is that why he was so stressed yesterday? He finally got the guts to ask you to be his girlfriend?”

She sent me a weird look.

“Uh no. That’s cause he had a Maths test. He didn’t exactly ask me yet, but it’s the same,” she waved her hand in the air. “It’s only a matter of time. Jeremy has his weird open relationship with Gabe, and you’re with Calum!”

“I’m not with Calum,” I groaned, already done with the jokes.

“De-ni-al!” She chanted. 

“He has a girlfriend,” I pointed out with an exasperated laugh.

“Who cares? You guys are perf.”

“You don’t even like him! You think he’s an asshole!”

“He is,” Rebecca nodded.

“No he isn’t,” I defended him immediately.

“A-ha!” Louisa pointed a finger at me. “Told ya!”

Meanwhile, Luke had walked over to where Lilah was sitting and they were whispering things to one another, their cheeks tinged with red and happiness shining in their eyes. I couldn’t help but feel like a proud mom as I blocked out Louisa’s ridiculous accusations. They were so damn adorable! And to think I’d played a part in them getting together!

For the rest of the day, I sported a huge smile, and it only grew when I saw Calum waiting for me outside of English class. 

“Well hello there,” I grinned at him.

His eyebrows shot up.

“Since when are you so happy?”

“Is there a reason not to be?”

“Uh…we’re gonna have English?” He said in a ‘duh’ voice as we went over to our usual seats towards the back of the room.

“English is great! You’re great! Life is great!”

He stared.

“Uh okay. What happened?”

“Luke finally asked Lilah out!”

“Alright…”

“Cal it’s a huge thing! She’s been crushing on him forever and he’s so fucking indecisive oh my god and he finally admitted he liked her a few days ago and he gathered the courage to ask her out at lunch and it makes me happy, okay? I’ve been shipping them for so long!”

My rant finally got a smile from Calum, and he shook his head fondly at me.

“Girls,” he rolled his eyes.

“Don’t roll your eyes! I’m the only one who gets to roll my eyes.”

He rolled his eyes and I slapped his arm, pouting.

“Calum…”

He chuckled and looked at me earnestly.

“So it really makes you happy that Luke likes your friend? You don’t…um…have any feelings for him?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I mean I love him, duh, he’s my best friend and he’s been there for me forever, but there’s never been anything romantic between us. And I’ve always wanted him to find someone as awesome as him, and I think Lilah’s the one.”

There was something like relief to Calum’s smile.

“The one, huh? You believe in soulmates?” He asked mockingly.

“Nah. I don’t believe someone got chosen when we were born to be together. How sad would that be? To know that there’s only one person you can possibly be with who could make you 100% happy? But I think that certain people, at certain times of your life, can be perfect for you. And Lilah could be that for Luke,” I shrugged.

He cocked his head to the side, his eyes slightly narrowed in thought.

“I like that.”

Then the teacher came in and interrupted our almost-deep moment as she started talking about what we’d done last time. Within seconds, Calum’s forehead was on the table as he let out a series of plaintive noises. I chuckled silently next to him, and since he wasn’t likely to take notes anytime soon, I wrote down what she was saying for him, figuring we’d need it on the next test.

“Are you taking notes for me?” Calum suddenly asked in complete disbelief as he lifted his head slightly.

“Yep.”

“You know I don’t care, right?”

“Yep.”

“Then why do you do it?”

“Cause someone’s gotta care for you.”

He looked at me then, his dark eyes so intense I had trouble keeping contact with them. He reached his hand up to my face and tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear, slightly grazing my cheek as he did. 

“Thank you for caring,” he said seriously, and I knew he didn’t mean the notes.

I gave him a shaky smile, slightly intimidated by his un-Calum-like behavior.

“No worries.”

When the double-hour class came to an end, Calum offered to give me a lift home. Usually I’d hitch a ride with one of my parents (when they were around) or take the bus, but I’d never pass up a chance to ride on Betty. It was seriously the most gorgeous thing ever. How ridiculous was it that the hottest person I’d ever seen owned the hottest motorcycle I’d ever seen? I called bullshit. Anyway, I sent Luke a message saying I wouldn’t be taking the bus and followed Calum outside.

On the way to his bike, he stopped to talk to a few of his jocks friends, who gave me slightly confused, slightly interested looks. Especially James’ gaze lingered on me. I gave him a small smirk as I remembered what had happened at his first party, when I’d more or less said I wouldn’t mind hooking up with him at some point. Obviously he hadn’t forgotten either, because he smiled back knowingly. While Calum talked about his next soccer match to someone else from the team, completely neglegting me (so sad, I know), James walked up to me.

“Long time no see, beautiful.”

“We’re in the same French class,” I rolled my eyes.

“Are we?” He smirked. “I didn’t see you on Friday.”

“I was there though.”

“Why didn’t you come say hi?” He fake-pouted.

“Maybe I was busy with someone else,” I chuckled.

“Hmm too bad. Are you free any time this week?”

My eyebrows shot up, knowing perfectly he wasn’t asking me on a date. That was blunt, even for someone like him.

“Back off,” Calum suddenly intervened, his voice sharp.

I glanced at him to see that he had disinterested himself from his other friend and was staring at James darkly. He probably thought I was out of my comfort zone here and needed me to save him. How sweet. James expressed my very feelings by rolling his eyes.

“Calm down, Hood. It’s all fun and games, right beautiful?”

Calum edged closer to me, but I ignored his protective stance. 

“Do you even know my name?” I grinned.

“It seems to have slipped my mind somewhere between staring at your milelong legs and seeing that sexy fucking smirk of yours,” James answered.

This time a growl escaped Calum’s lips.

“She’s not yours to play with, James.”

“Why, is she yours?” He asked mockingly.

His tone told me he didn’t know that Calum’s relationship with Grace wasn’t serious. He probably thought Calum was cheating on her with me. Boy was he wrong.

“I believe I only belong to myself,” I said before Calum got a chance to reply. “Now if it isn’t too much to ask of you Calum, I’d like you to stop behaving like a caveman and drive me home. James, I’ll see you around.”

James winked and blew me a kiss as I turned on my heels and made my way to Betty. Calum walked right along with me, the tightness of his jaw the only sign betraying how annoyed he was.

“Remind me to never give you a lift again,” he grumbled.

“Remind me to never try to have a civil conversation with a guy around you,” I imitated him breezily.

“A ‘civil conversation’?” He exclaimed. “He was basically asking you for sex!”

“So? I don’t see how that could shock you?”

He ignored my jab and curled his lip in distaste.

“You’d fuck him?”

“Maybe I would! Seriously Calum why do you even care?”

“Because!” He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and exhaled harshly, sounding defeated. “I just do, okay?”

I bit my lip and didn’t answer, staring at the ground as my fingertips traced Betty’s red metallic flanks. Calum sighed and handed me the spare helmet.

“Thank you,” I muttered before climbing on behind him.

I didn’t put my arms around him, and he didn’t complain. The bike came to a stop at my house only a few minutes later, and I slid down, noticing from the lit windows that my brother must be home already. I stole a look at Calum, who still looked glum as he waited for me to hand him his helmet back. I hesitated slightly before speaking up.

“Wanna come inside and play video games?”

Calum’s eyes snapped to mine. He hesitated a bit before speaking.

“Okay.”


	30. Video games

CHAPTER 30: Video games – Lana del Rey

Calum’s POV:

I followed Cami inside her house. I’d never had a good look before, since Cami had always dragged me directly to her room (it sounded much nicer than it actually had been). Now, I took the time to admire the white-and-glass themed livingroom. It could’ve come across as impersonal, but the numerous pictures hanging on the wall made up for it.

One of them caught my attention. It could maximum be one year old, and was of Luke and Cami. She had her head on his shoulder, smiling at him as he showed her how to play the guitar. I felt something bitter in my mouth as I remembered them kissing on Friday. Sure it had been a dare and she’d told me she only thought him as a friend, but—

“Cal, stop sightseeing. The TV is here!”

I detached my gaze from the framed picture and saw Cami sprawled on a white couch, remote in hand as she faced the flat screen. 

“What do you wanna play?”

“Something you won’t win,” I answered.

“Fat chance of that happening anyway,” a male voice snickered.

I turned to face him in wariness. Honestly, Cami hung out with too many guys. He was maybe an inch or two shorter than me, with dark brown eyes and hair an exact mix of brown and red. Just like Cami’s. Something like a relieved sigh escaped my lips as I realized this must be her brother.

“Cal, meet Sam. Sam, Cal.”

“Hey,” Sam said curtly. “So, do you actually wear pants or do you just paint them on your legs?”

I dropped my head and looked at my even-tighter-than-usual jeans. I frowned, trying to remember where I had gotten them.

“Yeah, I kinda stole these from a girl.”

“I don’t believe you,” Sam scoffed. “You’re probably just too embarrassed to admit you bought them in the girl section at a store.”

I tightened my jaw, too hurt in my manly pride not to reply.

“No, I’ll let you know that I stole them from Linda, that totally hot chick I accidentally did twice and that I had to escape in the morning because she was begging for more.”

Sam’s eyebrows shot up.

“Wow, that’s totally the sort of guy I want hanging out with my sister,” he said sarcastically.

I huffed. He’d asked for it! But that reminded me. I glanced towards Cami, suddenly nervous about what her reaction to what I’d said would be. She’d told me times and times again that she didn’t like my player ways, especially when someone got hurt. And here I’d just boasted about fucking Linda and leaving her wanting more. But Cami seemed to have no reaction. She was playing with a thick black bracelet on her left wrist, and simply lifted cool blue eyes to me when she noticed my staring.

“You should probably give her the jeans back,” she said, her voice betraying no emotion. “Pants aren’t free you know. You can’t just steal someone’s clothes and not give them back.”

I raised an eyebrow at that, considering I still hadn’t gotten my tee-shirt back.

“Yeah, you can’t do that,” I said, matching her tone.

She caught my reference and rolled her eyes, getting up from the couch. She briefly waved her hands between her brother and me.

“You guys play nice. I’ll go get it.”

As soon as she’d left, Sam turned to me, a scowl on his face.

“So, hooking up with Linda, was that before or after you got with Grace?”

I coughed awkwardly.

“Before obviously. I wouldn’t cheat on her,” I laughed nervously.

Sam stared at me stonily.

“I think you need to stay away from my sister.”

“I think you need to keep out of my business,” Cami retorted sharply, walking towards us. “What is it with guys and thinking they should control other people’s lives? I can perfectly well make my own decisions, thank you very much.”

She handed me the black tee-shirt.

“You might need to wash it. I didn’t.”

I nodded briefly.

“Alright, so, videogames?”

“He’s staying?” Sam asked in surprise and annoyance.

I was about to say that maybe I shouldn’t, considering I obviously wasn’t very welcome on Sam’s side, and was totally confused as to whether Cami was mad at me or not, when she spoke up.

“Yes. Now sit down on the couch or get you ass out of here,” she told her brother, who shrugged and sat next to her.

I was strangely reminded of that time when I’d forced her to play videogames with Mikey and me. Suddenly I felt bad for not telling my best friend anything about the whole Cami deal. He wasn’t one for parties, so he hadn’t witnessed any of what had taken place on Friday, and I hadn’t had a good talk with him in over a week. I blamed the schoolsystem. My fingers itched for my phone.

“Can I bring a friend over?” I blurted out.

“Is it gonna be James?” Cami asked, a small smile playing at her mouth.

I scowled.

“No. Mike.”

“Sure,” she nodded, ignoring the look her brother sent her. “What?”

“You know who else we should invite?” Sam said ruefully. “Luke.”

It was my turn to protest, but Cami smiled enthusiastically, apparently deciding to ignore the fact that last time Mike and Luke had been in the same room, they’d tried to bite each other’s head off and I’d had to intervene. To help Mike crush the blonde, of course. 

“Oh yeah!”

We started looking at the different videogame options as we waited for the others to arrive. Not even ten minutes later, we heard the door open and Luke made his way into the livingroom. He did a double take when he saw me, and his eyes turned to glare at Cami accusingly. She gave him an angelic smile and patted the ground next to her.

“Come and choose with us.”

Luke let out a huge sigh and sat between Cami and her brother. I noticed him biting his lip as he looked over the choices. 

“Fifa?” He asked. 

“No way!” Cami grimaced. “You know I hate Fifa.” 

Luke rolled his eyes.

“There’s seriously something wrong with you, Fifa is life.”

For the first time in my life, I agreed with Luke Hemmings on something.

“Yep,” Sam nodded. “I’ve been trying to tell her for sixteen years.”

“You can’t have tried to tell me for sixteen years, you are sixteen,” Cami scoffed. “There’s no way you could talk before you were one. Make that three, knowing how retarded you are.”

“Oh so I’m the retarded one? Who the fuck pretended that Stephani had sent me a gift only to have a fucking clown blow up in my face?” Her brother answered in a loud voice.

“That was Lilah’s idea! Plus you wanted to plant a huge spider in my bedroom, who’s the psycho now?” Cami almost shouted.

“Well I didn’t do it, did I?” Sam yelled back.

“No but that’s only because I made you pop-corn!”

“It’s not my fault you’re a lazy-ass fucker who needs to be bribed into making me food!”

“That doesn’t make any sense! You little sexist ass can go make the pop-corn itself from now on!” Cami shouted.

From then on I had no clue what they said because they changed into French, leaving both Luke and I clueless as to what was going on. I was staring at the two in total shock. What was their argument even about? Mali and I didn’t always get along, but we tended to ignore each other when we were mad, not scream at each other for literally no reason at all. I guessed it was their Latin blood.

Luke sighed and I saw him slide the COD disk into the Xbox, tuning out the siblings’ shouts. He was obviously used to it. I felt a bit out of place and honeslty couldn’t wait for Mike to arrive, despite the inevitable new arguments that would insue.

Right on cue, the doorbell rang, interrupting Cami in her interminable flow of angry French words. She turned to look at me, her cheeks were slightly flushed from the yelling, as if telling me to go get the door since it was my friend. I stood up and went to open the frontdoor. Mike practically attacked me with his bearhug.

“I missed you man! Haven’t seen you in like, a week!”

“I know right,” I grinned.

“So whose place is this?” Mike asked, looking around in confusion.

“Uh, Cami’s,” I replied as I led him to the livingroom.

“Sweet,” he said. He waved slightly at Cami as he spotted her, raising the bag in his hand. “Hey! I brought beer.”

“Cool!”

“Where do you want me to—“ Mike cut off his words as he caught eye of Luke.

The blonde had already risen to his feet and was giving my best friend a death glare the like of which I hadn’t seen in a very long time. I felt my jaw tense at his agressivity, and positioned myself slightly in front of Mike instinctively. I threw a look around and saw Sam staring at the silent exchange of hate, his body tense and ready to jump in. And in the middle stood Cami, smiling at the lot of us serenely as if oblivious to the fact that we were two seconds away from a full-on brawl.

“Oh my god, so much testosterone in the air,” she rolled her eyes. “Who wants pizza?”

That effectively broke the moment as literally all of us turned to her, hope filling our eyes and the words ‘me omg yes’ tumbling from our mouths. Cami grinned.

“Alright, I’ll order something. Sit down,” she patted the couch and I sat next to Sam, pulling Mike along with me. 

Luke’s eyes were still burning holes in Mike’s head, but Cami tugged on his arm harshly enough that he relented and sat down.

“Stop being so grouchy,” she shided him. “You should be in a good mood today, Lilah agreed to going on a date with you. Now, who wants a controller?”

She handed out the controllers and left it to her brother to start up the game as she called the pizza man up. She kept her gaze fixed on us as she ordered, and I could tell she was verifying that no one was about to break into a fight. But as it was, Mike seemed to be in a very light mood and he didn’t try to rile Luke up, focusing his attention on the screen. As for me, as long as my friend was good, I had no intention on getting on Cami’s bad side. The only person who might have been a problem was Luke himself, but he was showing a great deal of self-restraint and hadn’t jumped on Mike yet. Or maybe that was Sam’s tight grip on his arm. Who knew.

We had just finished bickering about the characters we wanted when Cami walked back towards us.

“Pizza will be here in thirty, parents in two hours. Let’s go!”

Turns out Cami wasn’t playing herself, contending herself with sitting at our feet and commenting the game. Mike was very clearly winning when the pizza arrived. Cami made us get plates and glasses from the kitchen, Luke leading the way. The four of us had just entered the kitchen when Luke whirled around, fixing Mike with a glare.

“You,” he spat. “You need to excuse yourself for your behavior towards Rebecca.”

“Who?” Mike asked lightly, raising an eyebrow in pretend-confusion.

Luke grit his teeth.

“Just the girl you made fall in love with you and then ditched after taking her virginity.”

“Um, which one?”

I sent Mike a warning glance, knowing this wasn’t headed in a good direction, but he ignored me, smiling flippantly at the furious Luke. I exchanged a look with Sam, who seemed alarmed. At my minuscule nod, he turned on his heels and went (I hoped) to get his sister.

“Honestly you’re so easy to rile up,” Mike said with a roll of his eyes.

“Didn’t last time serve as a lesson enough?” Luke gritted out.

“If I recall correctly, you’re the one who ended up in the hospital.”

“Not before you were down,” Luke shot back. “And by the way, really? Two against one? You’re pathetic.”

This time I spoke up.

“It was very much not two against one. You had your guy Ethan with you. And now, if you don’t want a repeat of what happened last time, you’re gonna shut up.”

At that point, Cami walked in, Sam trailing behind her. She simply walked up to Luke and said a few words in his ears. I watched in wonder as his anger seemed to deflate and he sent her a conflicted look. She raised an eyebrow and he rolled his eyes with a sigh, even smiling a little. What the hell had she just told him? She then looked at Mike challengingly.

“So, are you done insulting my friends under my roof?”

Mike rolled his eyes.

“You want me to excuse myself to her? Fine. Give me your phone.”

Before any of us could react, he took Cami’s phone. We looked on wide-eyed as he called Rebecca up. It reached voicemail, and he left a message.

“Hey, it’s Michael. I’m sorry I hurt you, and even though you were stupid to believe me, it might have been a low blow to break up the day after we had sex. I could maybe have waited a week. Anyway, bye.”

We stared, speechless, as he just shrugged and handed Cami her phone back. Sam was the first to laugh. It started out a chuckle, then got louder and louder until he was full-out laughing. 

“You are such a jerk,” he managed to get out, trying to catch his breath.

The rest of us eventually joined in, laughing out loud at just how ridiculous the whole situation was. Cami clapped her hands. 

“Pizza anyone?”

...

An hour later, the pizza was gone and so were the last shreds of anger and tension. We’d stopped playing COD, annoyed at how Mike kept winning, and were having a MarioKart tournament. Sam and Mike were locked in an intense match as Luke passed M&M’s around.

“Come on, bro!” Cami encouraged Sam as he took some advance on my friend.

“Hey, why aren’t you on my side?” Mike complained and pouted, though his eyes never left the screen.

“Because he’s my brother.”

“Yeah but I’m cuter.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got your own cheerleader,” she said referring to me.

“But he isn’t as pretty as you!”

I gasped in mock-hurt.

“Ouch!”

“I’m sorry babe, but it’s true.”

“You know what?” I said in a high-pitched voice. “That’s it. We’re done. Over.”

“What?” Mike asked in horror.

“I can’t do this anymore Michael. You treat me like shit. I’m breaking up!”

“But I love you…” he whined.

“I love you too, but sometimes love just isn’t enough,” I said dramatically.

My magnificent acting skills caused Sam to burst into laughter and his Mario crashed into the wall.

“Oh fuck! You made me loose!” He complained.

“Thank you Cal!” Mike cheered.

“I’m still breaking up,” I said gravely, making him pout.

“Fine! I’m sure Cami will love me better anyway!”

He turned to Cami, who widened his eyes at him.

“Oh no, I’m with Cal on this one. You were a bad boyfriend, look at him! He’s so sad now!”

On cue, I made a sad face, making use of my super pout and puppy-dog eyes.

“See! He needs comfort in the situation, not you!”

She got up from the ground and sat on my lap, looking up at me with a cooing expression. I somehow managed to hide my shock at her move by pretending to cry.

“There, there, Cal. It’s gonna be okay. He didn’t deserve you.”

In the meantime, Mike was complaining at the lack of love he was receiving.

“Who will love me now? Fuck me when I’m down?” He started belting out in a terrible rendition of Bring Me the Horizon’s Drown.

“Oh no you don’t,” Luke warned him. “You do not get to ruin that song.”

“Then give me love!” Mike exclaimed dramatically before falling down on Luke’s lap.

The blonde boy let out a pained gasp, and Mike’s arms went around him.

“I’m sad Lukey! Comfort me!”

“Ouch,” Luke whimpered out.

“Cuddles!” I yelled out, holding Cami tightly against me.

She started giggling and I could hear protests from Luke as Mike pulled him into a bearhug.

“Can’t. Breathe!”

Cami chuckled again and hid her face in my neck, making my heart skip a beat.

“Okay…” Sam dragged the words to emphasize the fact that he was judging us. “I’m just gonna leave you guys now…”

“Bye bye!” Mike chirped.

“I can’t believe you guys are the popular assholes of the school,” Luke scoffed when Mike loosened his grip a bit. “You are such dorks.”

“We just like cuddling,” I muttered into Cami’s shirt.

“I ship it,” Cami nodded as she looked at Mike and Luke. “I name you Muke.”

“What? You said you shipped me and Lilah!”

“Yeah, well, I changed my mind. You guys are cuter.”

Luke wrinkled his nose in distaste.

“May I remind you that I am being forced into this position? I don’t exactly want to be hugged by the manwhore who broke more hearts than he can remember.”

“Stop denying our love!” Mike exclaimed, hugging Luke tighter.

“Oh my god,” Luke whispered in defeat as Cami giggled again.

Who knew this disastrous idea would turn out fun?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Give me luv <3
> 
>  
> 
> Also MUUUUUKE <33333333 (if you write muke stories or know of good ones, pls comment it so i can check them out?)


	31. A daydream away

CHAPTER 31: A Daydream Away – All Time Low

Cami’s POV:

Lilah was freaking out over tonight’s date and despite my best efforts to tell her that Luke would be very casual and wouldn’t care how she dressed, she kept repeating that she had nothing good to wear. 

“Just borrow something of Rebecca’s, then! I don’t know!”

“Speaking of Rebecca,” Lilah narrowed her eyes, “how come she sent me a completely weirded out and shocked text saying Mike had left her a message from your phone?”

“Oh yeah, that.”

I blushed a bit. That wasn’t exactly the reaction I’d expected of Mike when I’d told him to stop insulting my friends. But in a way, even though message hadn’t exactly been nice, it’d been honest. The problem was just that Rebecca must have been wondering what the hell he was doing with my phone.

“Didn’t I tell you Luke, Calum and Mike hung out at my place yesterday? No? My bad…” I chuckled nervously.

Her eyes widened impossibly.

“What?”

“Um yeah. I mean nothing happened, we just played video games and cuddled.”

“You what?”

“Yeah. Actually if I were you I’d be careful, because Luke and Mike seemed awfully close. You don’t want him cheating on you before you’ve even had your first date,” I joked.

Lilah shook her head in complete bewilderment.

“I can’t even comprehend the words coming out of your mouth. Luke and Mike? In the same room? And cuddling?”

With a mix of a sigh and a chuckle, I told her everything that had happened yesterday, leaving her staring at me in shock.

“Uh next time you plan to perform a miracle, can you invite me along?”

“Sure thing bae,” I winked. 

The bell rang and we entered the French class grumbling a bit. The teacher had just closed the door behind her when it opened again to let Calum in. He took his time walking to his spot behind us, every step dripping with confidence and hotness. I stared. And I had cuddled that? Lilah elbowed me with a grin and I reluctantly detached my gaze from his tight jeans and muscle-tank.

I didn’t have time to concentrate on the lesson, however, because a pen poked my back and I turned to face Calum’s smirk. Was it me or did he look even better than usual today? I pondered over the question. Maybe it was because his hair was so effortlessly messy? Or because grey suited his complexion?

“You’re drooling,” Calum remarked sarcastically. “Then again, I understand. Had a hard time detaching myself from the mirror this morning.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Now you’re just being an ass. What’s up?”

“My di—“

“Shut up.”

“Yes ma’am,” he grinned.

“What do you want Calum? And I swear to god if you say something disguting—”

“Yeah, yeah. So Mike is hosting a party for his birthday sometime next week, and you’re invited.”

My eyebrows shot up. 

“Oh. Cool. I’ll be there. When is his birthday?”

“The twentieth of October.”

“Oh my god, just like Oli Sykes!”

Calum laughed, rolling his eyes.

“Of course you’d say that.”

My gaze shifted to Calum’s neighbour, whom I vaguely recognized as Eric. He was the one who’d left James’ first party with Grace. Speaking of James, he usually was in my French class too, although I couldn’t see him right now.

“Where’s James?”

Calum’s smile faded and his eyes turned dark.

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t. I was just wondering.”

Shrugging, I turned back to Lilah and focused my attention on the teacher for the rest of the lesson.

...

“Oh my god guys, who’s ready for gossip!” Louisa exclaimed.

She sat down at the table, looking excited as ever and dragging my brother along by the hand.

“Is it that Sam finally asked you out?” Jenifer asked, zooming in on their linked hands.

“No! Well I mean yeah, there’s that too. Much love, Sam. But I have several extremely important pieces of gossip!”

The entire table leaned forward to catch her words.

“One: James got suspended because he was caught selling weed in the corridors this morning. Two: Calum broke up with Grace—“

“What?” Rebecca exclaimed. “How?”

“Which one?”

“Calum, duh. James had it coming.”

“Just a few hours ago! He did it in the corridors, in front of everyone! And guess what her reaction was!”

“She slapped him?” Ethan suggested with a not-so-discreet hopeful look in his eyes.

“No! She just smiled and said okay.”

“I don’t know why you’re so surprised,” Lilah shrugged. “It’s not like they were in love or anything.”

I nodded, silently agreeing. But I was still more than a little surprised. I knew Calum and Grace had used each other to have a nice image in front of their parents, and I couldn’t think of a reason for him to want to stop. Was it because he wanted to more freedom to hook up with randoms? Or because he wanted to fake-date someone else?

I was still wondering at the fact when the boys and I made our way to the changerooms. Inside, Grace was being harassed by at least fifteen girls, all of them demanding to know what exactly had happened between her and Calum, how she felt about it and if he truly was free. Some girls who had noticed me sitting next to Calum once or twice in class asked me if I knew anything on the subject, but I followed Grace’s example and just kept silent as I changed. Jesus, the boy really did have a lot of success with the ladies.

I felt the slightest tug in my heart at the thought that he’d probably fucked half of these girls, and definitely considered fucking the rest. And they certainly would be willing. Disgust erupted in me as we got out of the changing rooms and they all made a beeline for the guy in question. They looked like groupies, clinging to the hope that he might screw one of them tonight. I didn’t understand that they’d be willing to endure the emotional trauma of having him throw them out just for a quickie in a dirty bathroom.

Then I realized I was spending way too much time thinking about this and shook my head. Looking around, I spotted Ethan, Luke and Jeremy on the side and skipped towards them. Somehow my desire to quiz Calum about his reasons to break up had disappeared. This time, the coach made the teams and I ended up with Ethan and Jeremy, along with a few other people I didn’t know. Surprisingly, it was tighter a match than usual, maybe because Calum’s team was mostly made out of girls who ran after him instead of the ball. Who knew?

I, of course, didn’t partake much in the game, just following Ethan’s example when he moved back and forth across the field. Maybe I’d look invested that way. I was also busy trying not to stare at Calum because I didn’t like double standards, and that took a great deal of concentration, believe me. When the match finally came to an end (they won 3-2), I went up to Luke and shared my bottle of water with him.

“So? How’s it going?” I inquired.

“Well if certain girls would stop drooling over a certain guy, maybe I could actually have some help in the defense,” he rolled his eyes.

“Was it always like this?” I wondered.

I watched as six girls crowded around the star player, his throat moving as he drank some water. Admitedly, it was hot. But they didn’t behave this way before.

“Maybe they’ve been hiding their attraction to him because they were scared of Grace?”

Speaking of her, she was lightly making her way to us. I felt my stomach do weird things as she locked her gaze on me. Uh-oh. What did she want?

“Hey,” she gave me a genuine smile. “Can we talk for a second?”

“Okay…”

We walked out of earshot from the rest of the class and I let my gaze glide over her. She was seriously perfect looking. I didn’t understand why Calum would wanna break up with his cover-story, especially considering how nice, smart and downright gorgeous she was. How did any of the girls out there compare? 

“So, you know about Calum and I’s break-up,” she stated.

“Who hasn’t? It’s number one gossip topic at the moment.”

“Yeah I guess. I just want you to take care of him okay? Don’t hurt him.”

“I…what?”

“Come on, you don’t seriously believe he broke up just to hook up with more girls?”

“Uh…”

“He already did whatever he wanted when we were dating,” she waved her hand.

“What are you saying?” I asked in a wary tone.

“I’m not saying anything. Just, don’t hurt him,” she replied simply, shrugging.

“You do know that Cal and I are just friends, right?”

“Cal?” She noted my use of the word with a smirk.

“Um yeah,” I answered uncomfortably.

“Did you know he hasn’t had sex in over two weeks?”

“Am I supposed to be impressed or something?” I scoffed. “Plus I know for a fact that’s untrue. Saw him come out of the bathroom that one day.”

“Blowjob?”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Oh, cause it makes you feel bad when he does stuff with other girls?”

I blinked, momentarily at a loss. Suddenly I understood Luke when he complained about girls picking up on every single detail.

“That’s not what I meant.”

She grinned.

“Freudian lapsus!”

“Can we not?”

“Alright, alright. Just be good to him.”

And with that, she turned on her heels and walked back to her group of friends, who had been not-so-discreetly staring the whole time. I frowned at her retreating figure. She seemed to be under the misconception that Calum liked me. Or was it a misconception? The more I thought about it, the more it was actually possible. I felt a smile stretch my lips before remembering the Plan.  
Did I have to break it off now, whatever ‘it’ was? No, I wasn’t sure it’d actually break his heart. I’d wait until he told me he had serious feelings for me. Then I’d tell him that it had been a game all along.

...

I was lying facedown on my bed, absolutely refusing to listen to Lilah’s administrations about how I had to make myself pretty before going to Calum’s place. Apparently since I’d helped her pick out her outfit for the date, she’d decided she owed me some advice too.

“Lilah we are going to do tutoring,” I groaned into my pillow.

“Well last time I got tutored by someone, we ended up dating,” she pointed out chirpily.

“That has nothing to do with each other!” I protested, raising my head. “You only asked for tutoring because you liked him and wanted an excuse to spend more time with him.”

Lilah raised her eyebrows at me suggestively.

“No way! Calum actually wants to be tuto—“ I faltered.

“Yeah,” Lilah said with a superior smile, “so how about we make you look good?”

With a sigh, I relented. As Lilah hesistated between two different tops to make me wear, she gave me some more details about her date. Apparently it had been both very sweet and frankly hilarious (duh, she was dating my idiot of a best friend), and they’d agreed to go out again next week.

“Hopefully he’ll actually ask me to be his girlfriend next time.”

“You gotta push him along I think,” I grinned. “He’s a bit of a shy guy.”

Lilah snorted.

“Right. He had no problem shoving his tongue in my mouth as a goodbye kiss but sure, totally shy.”

“What?” I screeched. “Oh god, Luke, that’s bad manners! I need to have a word with him about that.”

“Um, don’t worry about it,” Lilah quipped up. “I didn’t mind.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Of course you didn’t.”

She finally made up her mind about my top by picking out a third on, and threw the clothes at my head. I let out a small indignated sound before putting whatever she’d chosen on. A loose gray tank that said ‘Bite Me’ along with ripped skinnies.

“How is this any different from what I usually wear?” I frowned.

“It isn’t,” she sighed. “There is literally nothing that Rebecca would call ‘cute’ in your dresser, and honestly you would murder me if I tried anything. So this is me giving up. Plus you look good in everything anyway,” she added in a defeated tone.

I laughed and ruffled her hair.

“I’m really not, but sure. Thanks.”

As a revenge for her failure in the clothing department, she made me straighten my usually wavy hair so that it now fell to my lower back. She then left after making me promise to tell her immediately if even the slightest thing happened between Calum and I. With a yawn, I put on my shoes, grabbed my bag with the French stuff we’d be working on and walked to the bus station.

...

It was Mali who let me in. She’d apparently just gotten home from university, and was more than a little surprised to see me here. Me telling her that I was there for tutoring didn’t seem to reassure her.

“Alright then, he’s in his room,” she told me, still frowning. “You know where to find me if you need anything, right?”

I smiled lightly at the worry in her voice. It was clear that she thought I had a thing with Calum and that he would break my heart blabla. Honestly, the whole thing was getting old. It was definitely time to change things up. It was nice of her to care, but there was no way I’d let Calum play me. So I just nodded and made my way up the stairs to his room.

Whatever I’d been expecting, it certainly wasn’t the sight that greeted me. Calum was sitting on his poster-bed, facing away from the door as he strummed a familiar tune on his guitar. Now, I knew that he played guitar. What I didn’t know, however, was that he sang like an angel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comment if you like!!


	32. If it means a lot to you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *smirks forever*

CHAPTER 32: If it means a lot to you - A Day to Remember

Calum’s POV:

I furrowed my eyebrows as I got confused in the chords again. Sighing a bit, I tried again. I’d been hellbent on learning If it means a lot to you for at least two weeks now and I was finally getting it right. Shutting my eyes in concentration, I started the song from the beginning again, singing along for good measure. At one point of the song, I heard some shuffling and looked behind me.

I almost jumped out of my skin as I saw Cami sitting down next to me on the bed. Blushing a bit at the embarrassment of being caught playing (I was absolute shit) and singing (I was even worse), I put the guitar away.

“No fucking way,” she said, putting a hand on the guitar. “You’re finishing this song.”

Her blue eyes bored into mine and I swallowed nervously before continuing to play. Closing my eyes again, it came as a bit of a shock when Cami’s voice suddenly joined mine, singing the female vocals. I was completely surprised by how good she was. Whenever I’d heard her sing before, she’d been drunk, and hadn’t been the best, to put it mildly. But her voice had a breathy, raspy quality to it that was both sensual and soothing.

“But you can’t give me what I need, and even though you mean so much to me, I can’t wait through everything… Is this really happening?”

When the song was over, I put the guitar away. With a grin, Cami picked it up.

“I suck at this,” she warned me.

I shrugged.

“So do I.”

“No, I really suck. But Luke taught me this one.”

She picked at the chords, frowning as she messed up a little in the beginning, then smiling as she got it right. I chuckled as I recognized the tune as I miss you by Blink 182. We both hummed along, neither of us wanting to full out sing it but still expressing our love for the song. She finished it and let the guitar slide to the ground. Instead she grabbed some papers from her bag and gave me a shit-eating grin.

“You ready for some French?”

“Fuck no.”

...

“But why?” I complained. “Why is the grammar so bullshit? Who was the sadistic fucker who made this language up?”

“We blame a lot of different people,” Cami laughed. “Anyway, that’s the equivalent of the past participle. Just remember, accord the verb if it’s ‘be’, don’t if it’s ‘have’. Except?”

I frowned and racked my brain, wanting to show her that I really had tried concentrating.

“Except when the object is before the verb. Then I accord with ‘have’ too.”

“Good!” Cami beamed.

I cracked a smile at her excitement. My success made her happier than me. But my smile definitely widened when she shut the notebook closed and put in back in her bag.

“We’re done for the day!” She exclaimed.

“Really?”

“Yup! What time is it?”

I glanced at the clock and my mouth fell open.

“Um it might be ten thirty?”

“What? We’ve been working for two hours and a half?”

I pulled a horrified face.

“We deserve a break.”

“I wonder why Mali didn’t stop by,” she said. “I mean, we kinda skipped dinner and all.”

“She probably thought we were…occupied,” I smirked.

“Oh god,” Cami rolled her eyes. “Alright, I should probably get home. Do you happen to know when the next bus comes?”

“Bus?”

“Yeah, my dad is working night hours and there’s no way my mom will move her ass for me this late.”

“You’re not taking a bus.”

“Um, yeah I am.”

“No fucking way. I’m not letting you take a bus at night! It’s fucking dangerous!”

Frenchie raised her eyebrows at my vehemence, letting me know she thought my reaction was exaggerated, but I scowled. It was way too dark out already, and looking like she did, the risk that something happened to her was too high for me to even entertain the possibility of letting her go.

“Okay then can you take me home?” She relented.

“Nope.”

“What?”

“You’re staying over!” I grinned.

She sighed, but I could definitely see the corners of her mouth twitching. She was glad about the offer. I watched her quickly type a text to her mom before she lifted her gaze to mine. I tried to rein in my excitement, but I felt like a kid on Christmas.

“So, what do you wanna do?” She asked.

I tackled her to the bed.

“Ah!” She yelled. “Let go of me you idiot! Don’t you dare tickle me!”

A few minutes later, tears were running down her face from having laughed too much and she fixed me with a murderous glare.

“I hate being tickled.”

Swallowing nervously, I plastered a smile on my face.

“Let’s go eat!”

And I ran for my life. Frenchie followed me closely down the stairs, and I thanked god I knew the house better than her as I made a sharp turn to the left and locked myself inside a toilet.

“Fuck you, Hood!” She yelled as she realized she’d lost sight of me.

I heard the footsteps of Mali and then muffled voices. I put an ear to the door to understand what they were saying.

“What happened?”

“Your fucking brother is what happened.”

“Oh god. I’m so sorry Cami, I tried to warn you but you wouldn’t listen. He doesn’t like anyone. It’s always just been about sex for him. I’m so sorry he made you think otherwise.”

That’s when I understood. Mali probably had a very precise idea of what we’d been doing for hours in my room, and seeing Cami in tears, she thought I’d just thrown her out like I would any girl. My stomach clenched as I anxiously awaited Cami’s reaction to my sister’s words.

“Okay this needs to stop,” Cami stated. “Calum and I were not fucking upstairs, we were working on his French. People need to stop thinking he wants to hurt people. He’s a person, not a monster. He has other interests than just sex.”

“Cami, you don’t know him as well as I do. He’s only like this because—“

“Yeah, yeah, he’s only nice because he wants to get in my pants blabla. Isn’t repeating the same thing over and over again getting old? I’m not saying he’s a saint, far from it, but he’s not the devil. He’s done bad stuff but he’s your brother for fuck’s sake. Surely you know he’s good guy deep down.” And then she yelled. “Calum get out of your hiding place you fucking pussy!”

With a grumble, I opened the door of the toilets and faced the two girls. Fixing Mali with a glare the like of which she hadn’t often seen, I walked over to Cami and quickly pecked her cheek. She batted me away.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about before. You’ll get what’s coming to you.”

Mali looked between uncertainly and gave Cami an apologetic smile before hurrying back upstairs to her room. I clenched my jaw and led Cami to the kitchen to get us some food.

“I know you heard what we said.”

“Do you really believe what you told her?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied in certainty.

“You do know that she’s right. I’ve always been an asshole with girls.”

She shrugged.

“You’re good enough to me.”

“Maybe that’s just because I wanna get in your pants,” I said, using the same expression she had with Mali.

“Maybe it is.”

She shot me a mischievous look and stood on her tiptoes, her hand grabbing hold of my hair and pulling me close. Before I even realized what was happening, she was kissing me. She pulled away after a few seconds and shrugged.

“Maybe I don’t mind.”

I stared at her wide-eyed but she just turned around and carried on like nothing had happened. My whole being itched to pull her back against me and kiss her like she’d never been kissed, but I somehow managed to keep control. I didn’t want to break whatever it is there was between us, and it’d probably be better to let her decide what she wanted before I blew her world. But god, I was so confused. I’d worked so hard for us to be friends, and now she was kissing me and telling me she wouldn’t mind if I fucked her? That girl was seriously driving me crazy.

We ended up making pasta and I learned that she didn’t like tomato sauce, which prompted me to ask her if there was anything she liked at all, and accessorily if she was human. That made her hit my arm and say that she liked basilic sauce. I gently tickled her side and got the basilic sauce from the refrigerator. We ate while discussing what movie to watch.

Apparently my idea of throwing all the DVDs on the ground and picking one with my eyes closed wasn’t good because we’d have to put them all back in place afterwards. I had to admit she was right to some extent. As we argued over whether or not to watch a horror movie, I couldn’t help but noticing that her phone was continually buzzing. She was ignoring it fully, keeping her eyes on me as she repeated that she hated horror movies.

“I can’t stand them! We’re not watching any, and that’s final.”

“Ugh, you’re so boring. By the way, you might wanna get your phone.”

She rolled her eyes as she looked at the screen.

“Nah, it’s just Lilah. The girl I sit with in English?”

“Is that the girl Luke finally got the balls to ask out?”

“Yeah. Well she found out that I’m sleeping at yours and she’s spamming me because she wants details.”

Chuckling slightly, I extended my hand to get her phone. She gave it to me a bit hesistantly. Immediately I called Lilah up.

“Finally oh my god!” She yelled into my ear. “Tell me everything! What are you guys doing? Has he made some moves on you? Are you—“

“Hey, it’s Calum here.”

The line went quiet.

“We’re kinda busy having extremely kinky sex in which I have her tied to the bed in handcuffs and she’s begging for her daddy to spank her. Could you stop messaging us? You’re ruining the mood.”

I heard an outraged gasp from Cami as I ended the call with a self-satisfied smirk.

“Do you think she might believe it?” I asked her sorta hopefully.

“No!”

“Aww, too bad.”

“She would never believe I would do something like that. And hold up, you have a daddy kink?”

“What, no,” I grimaced. “That shit is weird. Spanking too. But you gotta admit, that whole handcuffed thing is pretty hot,” I added with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes.

“In your dreams, Hood.”

“Oh yeah, count on it.”

She gave an exasperated sigh that turned into a laugh midway, shaking her head at me.

“You’re unbelievable.”

“Unbelievably hot, yeah, I know.”

She ignored my comment and sat up on the counter.

“So? What movie?”

“Kingsman.”

She agreed and I went to get it before going back up to my room. Sometimes – okay scratch the sometimes – having a huge screen in my bedroom came in handy. We lay on the bed and started up the movie, sharing chocolate. Much healthy. Thankfully she had normal chocolate taste and didn’t insist on dark chocolate or anything, agreeing with me that milk was the best. Lindt in terms of brand. I just didn’t understand the people who loved Milka. There was no comparing the two. As the movie started, we tried our best to imitate Eggsy’s accent, both of us failing immediately. This made Cami mock the Australian accent, and I reminded her that I wasn’t Australian but half-Kiwi half-Scottish.

“Then why aren’t you better at imitating the Scottish accent?”

“Well I’m more Kiwi.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, cocking her head to the side.

“Hmm I see it. Small, round and green.”

I gave her an are-you-serious-right-now-your-joke-is-absolute-shit look and she burst into laughter, throwing her head backwards. I found myself staring at the curve of her throat. I inched forward slightly and quickly placing a kiss on the sensitive skin there before sitting back up and turning my attention to the screen again. I could feel her sitting back up too, and then she started placing small pecks down the side of my neck. Swallowing hard, I willed myself not to move and see where she was willing to take this. She ran a finger down my jawline.

“I could cut myself doing this,” she said softly. “It’s so freaking sharp.”

She continued kissing my throat, her fingers finding their way to my hair and gently tugging at it. I grabbed hold of her hips and sat her in front of me, blocking my view of the TV. Honeslty, she was much more of a sight than the murderous scene on the screen. She pulled back from me slightly and bit her lip as she ran her eyes over my face. 

“How are you so pretty?” She asked.

“I’m not pretty,” I huffed. “I’m handsome.”

“No, you’re pretty. And handsome too, but your face is so pretty.”

Her finger traced the curve of my eyebrows, the swoop of my nose, the bow of my lips. She pouted. 

“Why are your cheekbones better than mine?”

“Can I touch you?” I asked instead of answering her stupid question.

She nodded and immediately I took the elastic band out of her hair, letting it fall like a curtain around her face.

“Did you straighten your hair?” 

“Yeah. Lilah insisted I did something special because she ships us.”

I twirled a strand of her hair between my fingers as I spoke.

“I ship us.”

She chuckled and pecked my lips.

“Of course you do. You ship yourself with every girl you find remotely attractive.”

I frowned.

“That’s not true. First, I find you way more than just remotely attractive.” I kissed the crook between her neck and her shoulder, my fingers still playing with her hair. “Second, I don’t ship myself with every girl. Third, will you be my girlfriend?”

Her eyes widened and her mouth momentarily fell open. I kissed it closed. She nodded. I smiled. She kissed me.

“I ship us too,” she whispered against my lips.


	33. Heroine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do you think Cami's a bad person for leading Calum on? or is she leading him on? does she need to figure her shit out?

CHAPTER 33: Heroine – Sleeping With Sirens

Cami’s POV:

I woke up somewhere very warm. Shifting a bit, I tried to get the blankets off of me, but they wouldn’t budge. Come to think of it, they didn’t exactly feel like blankets at all. Whatever it was tightened its hold on me and let out a sigh. I stilled. Okay… Definitely not blankets. What had I done? I delicately tried to get the thing off me, looking around for an escape of what was definitely not my own bedroom.

“Stop moving,” Calum grumbled, nuzzling his face in my neck.

And that’s when I remembered. My heart jumped to my throat as I stared at the boy who had me locked in an embrace. I was dating Calum Hood. The words didn’t make any sense. I was dating Calum Hood. I was dating Calum Hood. I was dating Calum Hood. I was somewhat frozen as the rest of the memories came back to me. Watching a movie, stealing kisses, lazily making out, going to sleep because we were both tired. It seemed like a dream. And yet, when Calum finally lifted his head and blinked sleepily at me, I couldn’t help the smile that broke out on my lips. The light filtering through the windowblinds emphasized the shadows cast by his long eyelashes on his cheeks as he met my gaze, looking adorably confused. 

“Morning babe,” I said.

He blinked again.

“Am I dreaming?” He asked, his voice rough with sleep.

“No…”

“Did I hook up with you?” His eyes widened. “I didn’t want to hook up with you!”

“Ouch,” I deadpanned. “That’s not a very nice thing to say to your girlfriend.”

“No, no, no that’s not what I meant, but I just… I don’t want you to, I… I like…” He trailed off before his eyes widened again. “Wait did you say girlfriend?”

I shrugged through the knot of tension that suddenly made its way to my stomach. Had I misunderstood him yesterday? Had he changed his mind?

“You’re my girlfriend?”

“Um…yeah?”

“You’re my girlfriend,” he repeated, seeming uncomprehending.

“I mean, if you still want me to be…”

“Yes! Yes oh my god yeah totally!” He rushed out, as if scared that I would suddenly change my mind. “I just…” He paused, blushing a bit. “I just thought I was dreaming.”

“Calum Hood blushing,” I mocked him, trying to hide my own relief. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

“Oh fuck off,” he rolled his eyes.

“There we go, that’s the asshole I know.”

“First day in and you call your boyfriend an asshole? Wow,” he joked.

“You know it, babe,” I winked, and he chuckled.

Pushing him away, I got out of bed and started looking for the jeans that I’d left somewhere in the room, as they were extremely uncomfortable to sleep in.

“Well this is a sight I could get used to,” Calum grinned, and I turned to see him staring at my panty-clad butt.

“I’m sure you could.”

I quickly got my pants on, and he let out a disappointed whine.

“Why are you getting up?”

“I have plans for today,” I told him.

“So do I.”

“Good for you.”

“Do your plans include staying in bed all day and fornicating with your girlfriend?”

“No…”

“Then they’re not as cool as mine. You should definitely stay here.”

I laughed and shook my head.

“You’re such a child.”

He raised an eyebrow, humor disappearing from his face as he stared at me cockily.

“Want me to show you how much of a child I can be?” He asked, almost spitting the word.

A wave of heat washed over me as his scorching eyes almost glared into mine, promising a lot of unholy things.

“Um, no thanks!” I squeaked.

“Too fucking bad!” He exclaimed and leaned forward to grab hold of my waist, throwing me next to him on the bed.

“You idiot!” I laughed as he placed butterfly kisses all over my neck.

He lifted his head and narrowed his eyes at me.

“What were your plans for today?”

I rolled at his use of the past tense but answered anyway.

“Write my English essay, some Maths exercises… Probably get quizzed by Lilah on what happened.”

He grinned.

“Do you think she’ll ask you about the kinky sex?”

“Probably,” I chuckled. “She’s most likely freaking out right now.”

“You know what we should do?”

“What?” I asked warily, bracing myself for yet another sexual joke.

“We should have kinky sex. Actually give her something to freak out about.”

“Interesting,” came a woman’s voice from just outside the room.

Calum’s eyes widened impossibly and he let his head fall to the bed with a groan.

“Mom…”

I turned around and threw an awkward smile at the 50-ish woman standing on the threshold of the door. She raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“I thought you were Grace.”

“This is Cami, my girlfriend,” Calum said, gesturing towards me. “Cami, my mom.”

“I thought Grace was your girlfriend,” Calum’s mom spoke in confusion.

“Grace and I broke up,” he sighed.

“When?” She gasped.

“Like, yesterday?”

“What? Why didn’t you—Oh my baby boy, are you okay? Wait do you already have a new girlfriend?” The confusion was strong in this one.

“Are you ready for a scoop?” Calum asked in a bored voice. “Grace and I never liked each other, we just knew you oldies wanted us to be serious with someone. And honestly, you’re pretty blind if you haven’t noticed how much I get around. But now I like Cami so I broke it off with Grace and am dating her instead. But not fake-dating this time. Real dating.”

Calum’s mom blinked. 

“Um okay…so do you guys want breakfast?”

Calum and I exchanged glances. He nodded.

“We’ll be down in a minute.”

Calum showed me to the bathroom, where I quickly washed my face and brushed my hair. I then left him the bathroom so he could take a shower. I retrieved the books and notes I’d brought with me and put them in my bag. Having found my elastic band on the floor and pulled my hair in a high ponytail, I sauntered over to Calum’s dresser. Opening it, I ignored the numerous skinnies and tee-shirts, looking for…there. The All Time Low tank-top he’d forced me to give back. I changed into it, smiling at the familiar soft texture, and put my own gray top in my bag. I couldn’t put any make-up on, as I hadn’t brought anything with me, so I considered myself done and walked down the stairs.

I found Mali, Calum’s mom and a man I supposed was his dad in the dining-room. Smiling sheepishly, I sat down next to them.

“Darling, Mali, this is Calum’s girlfriend. What was your name again?”

“Cami,” I said.

“Girlfriend?” Mali sent me a weird look. “Like Grace?”

I shook my head.

“No, real girlfriend.”

“Calum told you he had feelings for you?” She asked in disbelief. “Wait, before or after he fucked you?”

Her parents looked away, uncomfortable.

“Before, during, after, what does it matter?” Calum asked as he walked inside the kitchen, saving me from the awkward situation.

I glanced at him to sent him a grateful smile and did a double-take. He was shirtless, his hair still wet from his shower. His hair was so dark I almost expected rivulets of ink dripping down from it, instead of colorless water. My eyes followed a droplet down his lean, tattooed torso to his toned stomach and to the pronounced V-line where it disappeared under the waistband of his skinny jeans. My mouth felt dry and I suddenly understood what Lilah had meant when she’d said seeing Luke shirtless had killed her. I felt very much dead at the moment. 

Calum smirked and leaned towards my ear as he sat down next to me.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

I stuck my tongue out to him and he bit my ear gently (making me choke on my piece of bread) before fixing his gaze on Mali.

“Yes this is my real girlfriend that I have real feelings for. Get over it.”

“Whom,” I whispered in his ear.

“What?”

“It’s whom I have real feelings for, not that.”

He wrinkled his nose at me.

“Never mind. I don’t have real feelings for grammar Nazis.”

“Sorry, it’s Lilah’s fault!” I grinned. “She’s getting to me.”

He rolled his eyes.

“There you go, always blaming others for the shit you do.”

“Hey! Don’t be mean.”

“I’m not mean. You’re a grammar freak who can’t handle the truth about herself.”

Faking a sad face, I pushed away my plate and crossed my arms on my chest, pretend-crying. Immediately Calum played along and pouted, poking at my arm but I refused to budge.

“Cami baby don’t cry,” he cooed.

“You’re a meanie!” I wailed, and he put his arms around me.

“I know baby I’m so sorry. Don’t be sad. Smile for your daddy.”

“What?” I screeched, pushing him away.

He exploded into laughter at my outraged face.

“What the fuck?”

“You should’ve seen your face!” He guffawed.

I slapped his arm and reached for my plate again. Only then did I realize how silent the room was, except for Calum’s laughter. Looking up, I saw the three members of Calum’s family staring at us in a mix of shock and amazement.

“He actually likes you,” Mali whispered in awe.

“’Course I do!” He exclaimed, planting a kiss on the top of your head. “Now you guys should close your mouth if you don’t wanna catch any flies. I know the sight is amazing, but honestly you’ve been living with me for seventeen years, you should’ve gotten over my beauty a while ago.”

I rolled my eyes at the arrogance of my boyfriend, then smiled as I tasted the word. My boyfriend. Mine. Calum Hood was all mine. I felt smug suddenly, thinking of all the girls who wanted him. I meant, the whole thing was fake on my part and I was gonna break up the second he told me he loved me, but nobody said I couldn’t enjoy the moment, right? Plus, I was about a hundred percent chance sure it would never actually come to it. There was no way Calum would ever fall in love with me. Most likely he’d get bored of me within a few weeks and break up first. I bit the side of my cheek, not liking that prospect. Then the whole Plan would have been for nothing. And he’d probably really hurt me in the process.

I decided this wasn’t a very nice line of thought to follow and snapped back to attention just as Calum pushed his plate away and thanked his mom for breakfast. I smiled politely and followed his example. He grabbed my hand in his and led me back upstairs with him, ignoring my protests that I should probably head home.  
It’s only when he had me sat on his bed that he realized I what I was wearing.

“That’s mine,” he stated, and I smirked.

“Deal with it.”

“Oh, I intend to, believe me.” His gaze intensified somewhat. “I like it on you.”

“Yeah?” I smiled, knowing that the large arm holes showed a lot of my bra, and that that was probably why Calum appreciated the view.

“You should probably tell your fam you won’t make it home today,” he said slowly as he advanced on me.

“Oh?” I replied in the same sultry tone. 

Just then, the sounds of my ringtone, Heroine by Sleeping With Sirens, filled the room. I detached my gaze from the beautiful person in front of me and answered the call.

“Yeah?”

“Cami, when are you getting back?” It was my mom.

“Hey mom, I thought I could spend the day at Luke’s. We can work there and all, you know. Plus it’s been a while since we’ve hung out just the two of us.”

My mom sighed before agreeing.

“Say hi to Liz from me.”

“Sure. See you tonight.”

I ended the call to find Calum looking at me, his expression guarded.

“What?” 

“You’re spending the day at Luke’s?”

I laughed.

“No you idiot. It’s my excuse to stay at your place. Now come here!”

I reached out to him and he quickly moved forward to pull me into his arms, sitting next to me on the bed. I climbed up on his lap and leaned a bit backward from his hug to trace the inked patterns on his collarbone.

“Hey, you’re not eighteen yet. How did you get tattoos?”

He shrugged.

“Let’s just say I’ve got contacts.”

“Well your contacts are very talented.”

He raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“I’ll pass on the compliment.”

I took his arm and ran a finger up the veins that showed clearly. He had such amazing arms. And hands. I placed my palm against his, stifling a chuckle at how long his fingers were compared to mine. Lifting my eyes to his, I saw that he was looking at me with a protective fondness in them, like I was this adorable kitten he had to watch over. I pecked his full lips and went back to my exploration of his body, this time taking a closer look at his chest. Under my breath, I hummed Heroine, which my damned phone had put in my head. Without a word, Calum reached behind him and took his own phone, putting the song on.

“I love that song,” he muttered.

“Would you be my heroine?” I asked, turning huge eyes to him.

He cracked a grin.

“Sure babe.”

He lazily ran a hand through my hair and brought his lips to mine. He took his time exploring my lips and I kissed him back just as slowly, just enjoying the soft texture of his mouth. I lightly ran my tongue along his lower lip and he parted them, letting me in. He tasted amazing. He surprisingly let me take control of the kiss, my tongue teasing his as I slowly leaned into him, forcing him backwards until he was lying down on the bed with me hovering over him. I broke the kiss to stare into his eyes. They were mostly chocolate, with occasional golden specks, but the sunlight gave them reddish glow.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered and I thought he was voicing my thoughts for a second, before realizing that he was talking about me.

“Me? Nah,” I hid my face in his shoulder and chuckled a bit.

“Yes you are,” he said stubbornly.

His fingers travelled down from my back to my sides and further down to my jean-clad upper thighs, tracing featherlight circles there. Just because I felt like it, I bit down on his shoulder. He gasped, his hands suddenly tightening their hold on my thighs.

“What the fuck?”

I kitten licked the spot I’d bitten.

“Sorry,” I giggled, reaching up to run my fingers through his still-damp hair. “You did tell me I was Dracula the other day.”

He didn’t answer, instead humming softly in appreciation of my massaging his scalp. His fingers started tracing patterns on my thighs again, slowly inching up towards my butt.

“You’re not very discreet,” I whispered into his ear.

“Ah dammit,” he joked. “And here I thought I was being ninja-stealthy.”

“How do you even know the word stealthy?” I laughed.

“Hey, I’m not stupid,” he pouted, cupping my butt with his hands and sitting back up with me on his lap.

“Just a little bit,” I teased, then flicked my tongue across his cheek quickly.

His eyes widened.

“You’re weird,” he stated.

“Just a little bit,” I giggled, then reached to my back pocket for my phone.

Calum misunderstood my move and tightened his hold on my butt.

“No this is mine now,” he said. “I can touch it when I want.”

“Calm down, I just want my phone,” I rolled my eyes. “And no, my body doesn’t belong to you.”

“That’s cause I haven’t touched you yet,” he smirked, speaking in a low, deep tone. “When I’ve made you come so hard you can’t remember anything but my name and I make you scream it so loud everyone hears and knows you’re mine. When you’re shaking so bad and moaning until your voice gets raw and you can’t do anything but whimper because I’m making you feel so good. When you can’t concentrate in class and you can’t sleep at night because all you can ever think about is my fingers and my tongue on your skin. Then we’ll talk.”

I swallowed. Hard. I felt completely light-headed, my mind buzzing and there was no air left in my lungs. Holy fuck. Flushed and breathless and absolutely devoid of the capacity to speak, I just stared as Calum smirked and handed me my phone. With a trembling hand, I took it and looked at it blankly. What had I wanted to do again? Just then, it buzzed and Luke’s name flashed on the screen. Oh right. Behind me, Calum let out an irritated sigh. I ignored him and opened Luke’s message.

From Lukey-poo: Why did I just tell ur mom u’re spending the day at my place? She called to ask 

To Lukey-poo: Spending the day at my bf’s, ya know Calum. Thx for saving my ass

From Lukey-poo: what are besties for? Also wtf?!? girl you have so much to explain when you get back

Smiling at how he instantly knew this wasn’t the moment to talk about my relationship with Calum, I threw the phone behind me and peered up at the slightly annoyed boy whose lap I was sitting on.

“What did he want?”

“He wanted to know why he was covering for me,” I shrugged.

“Oh.”

“I thought you’d like him by now,” I wondered.

“Well I don’t.”

“Are you jealous?” I grinned.

When he shrugged noncommitaly and looked away, I gasped.

“Calum! There has never been anything between us. He’s like a brother to me!”

“Does he know that?” 

“Yes, you thickheaded doofus. He’s dating Lilah! What other proof do you need?”

Calum made a face before rolling his eyes and sighing in defeat.

“Fine. Do you wanna play something?” He motioned towards the TV with his chin.

“Call of Duty,” I nodded. “I should have a fair chance of winning without Mike around.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Calum said cockily. “I’m great at it. And by the way, ‘thickheaded doofus’? Really?”

“Oh shut up. And put a shirt on.”


	34. Disconnected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like the summer rain, i like the sounds Luke makes when he sings bc he's the love of my life, we put the world away, yeah we're so disconnected!!

CHAPTER 34: Disconnected – 5 Seconds of Summer

Cami’s POV:

Playing Call Of Duty against Calum turned out to be insanely frustrating. Just as he’d predicted, he was way better than me, and I was getting annoyed at how easy it was for him to wipe me out. I simply sighed as he shot me for what had to be hundredth time, wondering what I could possibly do to get back at him.

That’s when an idea formed in the back of my head. I pouted and sat on his lap, as if asking for love because I was sad to always be losing. He kissed my neck and directed his attention back to the screen. But the next time we fired at each other, his character hidden behind a wall while mine crouched behind some garbage cans, I slowly grinded my butt against his crotch. He let out something like a gasp and missed his shot. I smirked as I took him out. Calum didn’t say anything, just continued the game. But everytime his character neared mine, I would grind on him and cause his aim to be completely off. I was finally getting on the same level. And no, it didn’t count as cheating. He never said anything but I could feel a tent forming in his pants, and he grew more and more restless every time I grazed it.

“Cami!” He eventually hissed as I managed to make him shoot incorrectly again.

“Yes?” I asked innocently.

He let out something like a growl and grabbed the controller from my hand, throwing it away along with his.

“You don’t get to that!”

“Do what?” I asked in the same innocent tone as before, turning my head towards him.

“You know exactly what I mean.”

“Oh, you mean that?” I asked, grinding harder than before against his hard-on.

His eyes squeezed shut and he let a breathy ‘fuck’ slip out.

“Fuckboy say what?”

He opened his eyes and glared at me, although his eyes were filled with lust.

“Come here,” he growled, turning my body around so that I was straddling him. “Kiss me,” he instructed.

I smirked lightly and went for a sweet, teasing peck on his lips, but he put his hand on the back of my head and pulled me into a passionate kiss, which immediately left me breathless. He bit none-too-gently on my lower lip, causing me to gasp, and he used it as an opportunity to slip his tongue inside my mouth. Gripping his hair, I kissed him back just as forcefully, battling for dominance. Willing for him to give in, I bucked my hips into his, and he made a sound deep in his throat. But contrary to what I’d hoped, he didn’t relent, his kiss only becoming needier by the second as I continued shifting on his lap, purposefully causing friction between our cores. Except what had started out as teasing soon became sweet torture for me too, and I found myself needing to increase the friction between us.

Meanwhile, Calum had gained full control of the kiss, hungrily tasting me as his hands roamed my body freely, inching under my shirt. I let one of my hands fall from his hair and tugged at the shirt. Getting the clue immediately, he leaned back and shrugged his shirt off before re-attaching our lips immediately. I ran my hand up and down his back, my fingernails slightly scratching his caramel-toned skin as he bit my lip. I emitted something like a whimper and broke away from the kiss, gently biting his jaw once before turning my attention back to his throat.

His hands fell to my hips and he held me even closer to him, seeking more contact. He was panting hard, and my own breath shuddered as he suddenly dropped his head down and bit at my clothed breast. He got hold of the tank-top and lifted it over my head, throwing it on the floor right next to his own.

“It looks even better on the floor,” he grinned before his gaze dropped to my chest. The smile faded from his face and he swallowed hard. “Shit,” he simply whispered. “I am so fucked.”

I was myself out of words, because he immediately started licking and suckling at my cleavage. My brain had stopped functioning a long time ago, and I could just dig my fingernails in his shoulderblade to let him know how good he was making me feel. I kept slowly grinding into him and leaving open-mouthed kisses on his neck, letting out occasional soft moans against his skin as he continued paying attention to my breasts. As he suddenly nicked my nipple over the bra, I bit down harshly onto his neck. He moaned loudly in response, the sound instantly shooting down to my crotch.

“Got a bit of a pain kink?” I half-laughed half-panted.

“Same could be said about you,” he chuckled.

“Fuck yes.”

I smiled and pulled him in for another kiss, slower and more sensual. His fingers were back to my hips, tracing circles there, as I took my time learning to know every curve, every crevace of his full lips.

Just then, my phone started ringing. Calum groaned in annoyance, and I booped his nose before getting off his lap to check the caller ID. I sighed. It was Louisa.

“Can’t your friends shut up?” 

“You shut up,” I told him as I answered the call. I knew very well that with Louisa, not answering the phone wasn’t a possibility. She’d just keep pestering me until I did. “Hey, what’s up?” I asked.

“Cami! Hey! Wait, why are you out of breath?”

“No reason,” I said quickly. “I’ve um, been running?”

“Pfff, you and I both know you never do any exercise. Please don’t tell me you were doing the naughty, because it’s enough with my—“

“Louisa what did you wanna tell me?” I cut her off.

“Oh. Right. Could you tell me when your brother’s birthday is?”

“Ugh Louisa, there’s something called Facebook. Or you could ask him.”

“Are you saying that to cover up the fact that you don’t know when his birthday is?”

“No! It’s the fifth of June! Now can you not call me for something stupid next time?”

“Wow, aren’t you in a hurry. Where are you by the way?”

“At Luke’s.”

“Oh see that’s funny, cause that’s what Sam told me, but Lilah is there right now and she says you’re nowhere to be seen.”

“Louisa—“

“She also says you were last seen at Calum’s place.”

“Louisa—“

“So see, we’re a tiny bit curious as to what you’ve been doing all day. And night, for that matter. Not to mention—“

The phone was plucked from my hand and Calum spoke into it, irritation dripping from his voice.

“This is at least the second time I have to get you girls to mind your own business. What do we need to do to get some private time in this country?”

I could hear the phone buzzing as Louisa rattled off sentence after sentence on the other line, but Calum wasn’t having it.

“Isn’t there a mute button somewhere? Just shut up, god. Go play with yourself and leave us alone,” he spat and ended the call without leaving her the time to reply.

“You are so rude,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief.

He rolled his eyes, and then scowled as my ringtone sounded again insistently. I grimaced.

“That’s Louisa for you. She won’t let you off the hook.”

“Is she getting laid often enough?” He asked, his brow creased as if in worry.

“She’s dating my brother,” I reminded him. “I’d rather not ask.”

“I think him and I have to have a talk. Just turn the damn thing off,” he added, referring to the phone, which was still going off. 

I did as he said before turning my gaze to him.

“So?”

“She ruined the moment,” he pouted.

“She kinda did,” I agreed with a laugh.

We both put our shirts back on, laughing a bit at the situation. Sitting crosslegged on the bed, I leaned my head against his shoulder comfortably.

“So, are you like, really into wine and cheese?” Calum asked me out of the blue.

“Um no. Why?”

“Because it’s French?” He said in a ‘duh’ voice.

“That doesn’t mean I like it,” I chuckled. “What I do love, however, is baguette.”

Calum shook his head.

“I had that once. Never understood what the big deal is.”

“That’s because you don’t get to taste the real ones anywhere else than in France!” I exclaimed pationately. “You gotta go to Paris and to a real artisan boulanger and get warm baguette, fresh out of the oven. There’s nothing like it, honestly. You haven’t lived if you haven’t had that at least once.”

Calum rolled his eyes.

“Well excuse me if I can’t just go to Paris and pick up some French bread whenever I feel like it.”

“You’re not excused,” I grinned. “You still haven’t lived.”

“How about I tell you about the life I’ve had so far, and you can be the judge of whether I’ve lived or not.”

We spent the rest of the day exchanging memories about our childhood and telling each other about our first years in high school. I shared the story of how I kissed a frog once, lowkey hoping for it to turn into a prince, and he told me about his obsession with dogs and his sadness that he never had one because his mom was allergic. I explained how I’d stopped believing in love when I was nine because my older sister’s boyfriend kept making her cry, and he described how he’d lost his virginity to a twenty-year-old in the backseat of a car when he was fifteen. I told him that I’d become vegetarian after visiting a farm and feeding a baby sheep with milk from a bottle, and he shared with me his strong hate for Sea World.

He was just describing the horrible fate of some whales in the all-too small tanks when his phone buzzed, demanding attention. I got a glimpse of the screen and raised my eyebrows as I saw the text was from Anika, a girl he’d said was his sex friend. He made a face and put the phone away, then looked awkwardly at me.

“Uh…I don’t exactly know how to tell her that I don’t wanna see her anymore?”

“How about this: dear Anika, I am sorry to announce you that I will no longer be requiring your services. Have a nice life.”

Calum laid his head back and laughed, then required me to repeat the sentence word for word as he typed the text. 

“There we go! Farewell Anika!”

“Aren’t you gonna miss her?” I asked, a bit hesitantly.

He frowned.

“Why?”

“I mean…wasn’t she a good fuck?”

“Of course she was. Otherwise I wouldn’t do it again with her.”

“So…?”

“So it doesn’t change anything. I never felt anything for her, and I’m starting to think that I don’t want meaningless sex anymore.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Calum Hood?” I joked, trying to cover up the relief and giddiness his words gave me.

Apparently he didn’t fall for it, because he gave me a half-smile and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. The sweet moment was yet again interrupted by the phone’s buzzing. Calum laughed and showed me the text.

From Anika: wtf?

To Anika: it means nothing will ever happen between us again. Get urself a new sextoy

“Alright and now turn this thing off,” I told him with a grin.

He nodded, following his own advice from earlier, and we went back to getting to know each other again, both occasionnaly stealing kisses here and there, just enjoying the moment.

...

I spent Sunday locked inside my room, working my ass off to make up for having done absolutely nothing the previous night. Not that I would have changed anything, though. It had been amazing. He’d decided to take me out for lunch, but since we were both the opposite of classy, we’d ended up picking up sandwiches in Subway. And then we’d walked around one of Sydney’s beaches, just taking pleasure in each other’s company.

However, I’d payed for this disconnected day with endless calls from Lilah, Louisa and even Jeremy. Luke was basically the only one who’d left me alone, knowing I’d come to him with the info when I wanted to. I hadn’t answered any of the calls, just sending a ‘we’ll talk later’ text to the three of them. As for my mom, she’d believed my cover story and hadn’t asked a single question about where I’d been. Only Sam had looked at me weird over the dinner table.

...

Monday morning, I told Luke about how I was now dating Calum, and he just nodded with a small smile on his lips. Then we carried talking about something else. I was on my way to French class when a certain fuckboy intercepted me. I didn’t even have time to say ‘hi’ before he had me pushed against the wall.

“I missed you,” he whispered before kissing me hungrily.

Immediately everything around me faded, and only his lips against mine mattered. I curled my fingers into his hair and tugged him closer, causing him to chuckle darkly. His tongue found its way into my mouth and stroked the inside of my mouth sensually. I moaned soundlessly just as whistling erupted around us. Calum payed them no attention, and I opened my eyes to see him raising a middle-finger at the people staring. I resisted the urge to smirk at how utterly punk-rock he was acting, and went right back to kissing him hard.

We only pulled away when the doorbell rang. Breathless, I let out a small laugh and kissed his nose playfully before heading towards the classroom. He grabbed hold of my hand and laced his fingers into mine as we walked down the corridors, ignoring the blatant stares from people. They’d probably never seen Calum holding hands with anyone, not even Grace, and the fact that it was with the unimportant newbie made it all the more strange.

Calum only let go of my hand as we entered the classroom. I sent a smile in the teacher’s way and gave a look to my boyfriend, who smiled angelically in turn and excused himself in a perfect French. The teacher’s mouth opened with surprise, and I couldn’t help but feel proud at the fact that he’d actually remembered what I’d taught him. He grinned at me and sauntered over to one of his jock friends while I made my way to my usual seat next to Lilah.

I somehow managed to avoid her all-too-pressing questions, just telling her I’d spent a good part of the weekend at Calum’s. When the class came to an end, we walked outside to the corridors and I waved an ‘I’ll see you later’ wave to Lilah just as James materialized himself in front of me.

“Calum, huh?” He said.

“Um yeah,” I smiled.

“Is it gonna be something regular, or do you have time to squeeze me in your timetable?”

“Uh…” I hesistated, not exactly sure how to explain that we were in a relationship.

“What do you want?” Calum asked brusquely as he suddenly appeared next to me.

“A taste of this beauty,” James smirked. “I mean, if you like her so much that you make out with her in the corridors, she’s gotta be good, right?”

I swallowed as I felt Calum’s body tense up next to me, and intervened before he could attack the other boy.

“Uh I’m not willing anymore,” I told him quickly. “I don’t want to hook up with you.”

James’ eyebrows rose.

“You don’t know what you’re missing out on. Oh well, too bad. Call me if you change your mind,” he winked.

He was about to turn around and leave, but Calum’s arm shot out and pushed him harshly into the wall.

“Let me get this clear,” he spoke, his voice dark and dangerous. And yes, okay, hot.

I’d be turned on if it weren’t for the fact that I was scared this would turn into a full-on fight. People had started to make a commotion around us, wondering what was happening.

“Cami is not going to change her mind. If you know what’s best for you are going to back off and leave her the fuck alone.”

“What’s gotten in your ass?” James asked. “She’s just another fuck.” 

“She’s my girlfriend,” Calum growled.

I kid you not, the whole corridor went silent.

“She is mine, and you are not to look at her, you are not to speak to her, and god forbid if you touch her…” The threat hung in the air.

James swallowed.

“Lighten up man, I didn’t know she was your girlfriend.”

He shrugged Calum’s hand off his shoulder and shot me an apologetic look before leaving. Immediately Calum grabbed me and his mouth crashed onto mine. He was realeasing his pent-up frustration into the kiss, harshly biting my lips as his tongue dominated mine. I pulled away after a few seconds, and he let out an annoyed sound.

“Please don’t. Now is not the time to say you don’t belong to me.”

I grinned.

“You mean now when your testerone level is at 110%?” 

“Something like that,” he said and suddenly dropped his head to my shoulder and bit down.

I gasped and swatted at his face.

“What the hell?”

He grabbed my hand and kissed my knuckles softly.

“Everyone needs to know you’re my girl.”

“I’m not anyone’s, I’m—“

“Just shut up,” he groaned.

“They’re all staring, aren’t they?”

He looked over my shoulder and nodded with a smirk. I sighed.

“Alright then, get to class Mr. Fuckboy.”

“See you later, Frenchie!” He called out as he started making his way to his next class.

The rest of the morning was more or less uneventful, except that to the normal horror of Monday mornings was now added the weight of everyone’s gazes on me as they wondered what I’d done to their star player. Especially the girls were whispering among themselves, sending me poisonous looks. I didn’t really care, but I couldn’t help wishing it didn’t have to happen on a Monday. They sucked.

When it was finally time for lunch, I queued with Jenifer and Ethan, who had apparently spent a romantic weekend together on a beach a few miles away from the city. They were telling me about the location when we sat down next to the others. I noticed that my brother was eating with us. Apparently dating Louisa meant he was abandoning his sophomore friends. Oh well. As soon as I took my spot next to Luke, Lilah sent me a very intense look I knew meant I-have-waited-enough-now-spill, but before I could do anything, Louisa and Rebecca started a conversation about a cat they’d found on the street yesterday and that they were trying to convince their parents to keep.

“Hey guys, Mike and Calum are headed this way!” Louisa suddenly chirped before sobering, eyes widening in shock. “Wait, Mike and Calum are headed this way!” She repeated, this time with anxiety in her voice.

I turned around and sure enough, the two bad boys were walking towards our table, matching cocky grins on their faces.

“Hey Frenchie,” Calum smirked as he sat down next to me.

“Hello!” Mike spoke up cheerfully before starting to eat, making it obvious that this had been Calum’s idea.

“Hey…” I looked at Calum weirdly, as if to ask what the fuck he thought he was doing, but he shrugged me off.

“Are you gonna introduce us to your friends?”

To say that they were shocked was an understatement. They all sported blank expressions, except for Jeremy, who smiled slightly, and Luke, who looked utterly exasperated.

“Guys, this is Lilah, Louisa, Jeremy, Ethan and Rebecca,” I swallowed hard. “You know Luke and Sam.”

I peeked at Rebecca but she was studying her plate in silence, obviously more than a little awkward with having to eat with the boy who’d broken her heart and then gone on as if nothing had happened. The tension quickly diffused, however, as Calum started talking about soccer with Jeremy, Sam occasionally asking questions, as he wanted to join the team (no, I didn’t know of this before…I’m a shit sister). The others eventually carried on with their conversations, occasionally sending uneasy looks to two intruders. At one point, Mike turned to me.

“Hey, so you’re in for my birthday party? I’m having it during the holidays so no-one can bitch about having too much work to come.”

“You know you’re born the same day as Oli Sykes?”

“I know! So awesome right! Anyway, you coming?”

“Sure… Who’s gonna be there?”

Mike shrugged.

“I don’t know. I’m not much of a party person, so not that many.”

“Cool. I think I’ve had enough parties as it is.”

Mike cracked a grin and raised an eyebrow.

“Really? What happened last party?”

“I decline to answer,” I stuck my tongue out.

“You can’t, that’s cheating!”

“Hey, stick to your own girlfriend, will you?” Calum interrupted us, pouting.

He put an arm around my chair and nodded towards Luke, who shot both of them a glare.

“What? Are you still butthurt over the fact that you’re the girl in the relationship?” Mike asked my best friend, smirking. “I told you I’d let you top from time to time.”

“Um, excuse me but what exactly is going on here?” Lilah cut in, her eyebrows raised. “Isn’t it enough to jump on every girl ever? Are you gonna flirt with my boy too?”

Mike sighed deeply.

“I’m sorry to break it to you hun, but it’s already done. Luke’s mine now.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rebecca’s mouth drop. Apparently she hadn’t realized the two enemies had more or less made friends. But Luke just gave up on trying to seem pissed and let a chuckle escape his lips.

“See babe? I still make you laugh. Don’t give up on us yet,” Mike grinned. 

“This is so fucking weird,” Louisa stated.

“Muke is legit,” I giggled.

Calum’s hand found its way into mine, his thumb tracing small circles on my skin. I looked up at him in surprise and saw that he was still talking to Jeremy, though the corners of his mouth were curled upwards, as if sensing my gaze.

“This right there,” my brother spoke up, pointing at Calum and I, “I don’t approve.”

“To be honest,” I told him, “I couldn’t care less.”

The small smile on Calum’s face turned into a full-on grin, crinkling his eyes.


	35. Follow you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the video for that song is some of the weirdest shit i've ever seen... But it's Bring Me so i love it :') they're my favs
> 
> also BY THE WAY smut warning

CHAPTER 35: Follow You – Bring Me the Horizon

Cami’s POV:

The rest of the week was quite uneventful. Apart from Calum casually making out with me in the corridors any opportunity he got (and giving me heart-attacks) and sometimes sitting at my table for lunch with Mike, I didn’t see much of him other than in class. Let me tell you, it was hard concentrating on what the teacher was saying when his fingers kept going inappropriate places. I did my best to keep things PG, but even then just his closeness distracted me. More than once I’d wanted to just get the teacher to shut up and explore Calum’s beautiful body for hours on end. Learning his sweet spots, his favorite touches, his guilty pleasures seemed much more interesting than whatever the teacher was blabling on about. And that was in English, my favorite subject.

In French, I sat next to Lilah and did my very best not to be in Calum’s line of vision, as he needed to work more in that subject. His case was sorta hopeless, though, because then he’d just spend the class period texting me. As for soccer, well, let’s just say that kissing a sweaty Calum after having drooled over his figure for an hour was very satisfying.

I did my best to concentrate in my other classes, as the vacation was just around the corner, which meant endless tests. That was why school was the only place I saw Calum. The rest of my time I spent holed up in my room, trying to get some work done. Luke was over quite a lot though, and we helped each other study. He hadn’t asked many questions about my relationship with Calum, which I was grateful for. I didn’t exactly know what to make of it. There was no denying the butterflies in my stomach everytime I saw him, everytime he smiled, everytime he kissed me. But the knowledge that I’d have to break up with him eventually lay heavy on my chest. As for Lilah, she’d simply told me that she was confused as to whether she shipped us or wanted it to be over as soon as possible.

“It’s simple,” she’d said, unknowingly echoing Luke’s words from a few weeks ago. “It’s either you break your heart or he breaks yours. It’s all just a matter of time.”

But at this point I wasn’t sure it was that simple anymore. And the more I thought about it, the more I started to think that there was no way this could end well for my heart.

...

When Friday came around, Calum went up to me and told me in very explicit terms that he’d had enough of me having to work every night and that I was sleeping over at his so I could make up for all the time I’d been neglecting him. I refrained from pointing out that we’d seen each other everyday at school, and just nodded. It wasn’t like every part of me wasn’t burning to say yes.

After my last class period, I met up with him in the parking lot. By then I’d gotten used to the looks, so I just smiled at the girls who were glaring a bit too insistently.

“Come on,” Calum grinned, his eyes lighting up.

I skipped over to Betty and crooned over her. I’d never get over how beautiful the bike was.

“Where did you even get her?” I asked.

“My dad bought it for me when I got my license. I always got fancy gifts from my parents growing up cause they’re never around and they feel bad about it,” he said, and despite his careless tone I could tell this had hurt him as a kid.

I nodded.

“He’s got good taste,” I praised.

“Nah, I chose it. He just brought me to the store and asked which one I wanted.”

I laughed.

“Alright, let me rephrase that: you’ve got good taste.”

“I agree babe,” he smirked before handing me his spare helmet. “Let’s go.”

Betty was as amazing as ever, the rush of her speed knocking all the air from my lungs and sending shocks of adrenaline in my entire body. I felt more awake than ever as shivers of excitement ran down my spine. Calum’s body, bent over the engine, was tense and concentrated, the heat coming off of him in waves negating the chill of the wind on my skin. The drive to his place lasted around fifteen minutes, by the end of which we were both giddy. 

“Motorcycles are great,” I whispered as I handed him my helmet.

“Hell yeah.”

 

I watched Calum out of the corner of my eye; taking in his tall, lean frame, the smooth, tattooed skin of his muscular arms, the way his jeans clung to his shapely legs. I felt my mouth dry up. He was just so hot. Wearing a helmet had messed up his hair, making it look like he’d been up to dirty things, and his eyes got a wicked gleam in them as he noticed me staring.

“There’s just one problem with them,” I said softly.

Calum frowned, jumping to the defense of his bike.

“There’s absolutely no problem with motorcycles.”

“Yeah, just one thing that’s too bad,” I insisted.

Taking a step forward to close the distance between us, I looked up at him earnestly. Calum swallowed at the proximity, the movement highlighting the sharpness of his jaw.

“What?”

“Well,” I said casually, tracing a line on his arm with my fingertip, “I can’t give you roadhead on a motorcycle.”

Calum let out a harsh breath, his muscles tensing up at my words.

“What?” He almost gasped.

I just looked into his eyes, an innocent smile playing at my lips.

“Cami you can’t say stuff like that,” he said, shaking his head. 

“Why?” I asked, as if unaware.

I found myself enjoying how flustered he was becoming. Apparently he had a thing for blowjobs, because this conversation definitely had him getting him hot and bothered.

“Cami—“ He shut his eyes in frustration, and when he opened them again, I almost stumbled backwards at the intensity. “You can’t just say stuff like that because I haven’t had sex in weeks Cami,” he dragged out, his voice raw with need. “And I am so fucking sexually frustrated, and you’re there with your perfect eyes and your perfect legs and your perfect everything—you’re just, you’re killing me, and I only have so much control.”

I swallowed at the physical pain behind his voice.

“How about we go to your bedroom then, Mr. I’m-a-sex-addict?” I asked huskily.

He stared at me wide-eyed, almost disbelieving, as if he truly hadn’t expected this reaction from me.

“Come on then,” I smirked and leaned over to gently bite his ear. “Let’s get you off.” 

He made a sound halfway between a gasp and a whimper and let me drag me to the porch of the house. He fumbled for some time with the keys before finally opening the door, his fingers trembling from the growing tension between us. By some random stroke of luck, there was no-one inside, and we hurried up to his bedroom.

The second I’d closed the door behind us, his lips came crashing to mine and he pulled me harshly towards him, seeking some kind of relief. I made him take of his shirt immediately and ran my hands over his tense stomach as his hot tongue explored my mouth. I gasped when he thrust his hips into mine, and Calum let out a needy moan. I pushed him away and made him back towards the bed. Going to my knees, I deftly undid his belt and unzipped his jeans, tugging them down. Over me, Calum was panting, and when I looked up, his eyes had a wild look to them. He pulled me back up for another hungry kiss while sliding out of his jeans, then tugged insistently at the hem of my top. I shrugged it off, mentaly congratulating myself on having randomly chosen to wear cute underwear today as his pupils widened, almost completely swallowing the brown in his eyes.

“What are you doing to me?” He whispered with a haggard look.

I didn’t answer, instead lightly pushing against his shoulders to make him fall back on the bed. With a teasing grin, I leaned over him and trailed kisses down his jaw, collarbone and torso before putting my lips to his ear.

“I’m giving you a blowjob,” I whispered back.

He groaned, letting his head fall back against the mattress and shutting his eyes. I took a moment to admire how utterly beautiful he looked; his messy dark hair streaked with blonde, the muscular slope of his shoulders, the patterns of ink on his collarbones, his tonned torso and the V-neck that indicated exactly where he needed me. Then I started kissing, licking and gently biting my way down to his boxers, until his stomach was rising and falling harshly with every ragged breath he took and he was letting out moans of anticipation. Finally I tugged down his boxers, causing his breath to catch and his hands to suddenly grip my hair.

“Cami…” His voice was strangled, almost begging. “Cami please.”

The way he said my name, like he needed me and he needed me right now, got me hot all over. The second I touched my mouth to him, he moaned loudly and it was all it took for me not to whimper at the sound. I started out slow, just licking up and down his hard shaft until he tugged at my hair, more or less silently demanding more. I started sucking him off, taking him all in and then receding until only the head was in my mouth. Calum was incredibly loud, moaning and panting and whispering “fuck” and “Cami” and “please” over and over again, tightening his hold on my hair when I occasionally flicked my tongue on the sensitive underside of his shaft. I felt him getting closer as the sounds escaping his throat became more and more high-pitched and breathy. He started bucking his hips up to match my movements, guiding my head to meet him until he was basically fucking my mouth.

“Fuck…Cami please…Fuck, I’m—Oh fuck…”

He let out a sound halfway between a groan and a moan, his fingers clenching around my hair as he came in my mouth. I swallowed, knowing he wouldn’t mind if I didn’t, but considering I’d just reduced him to a puddle of begging and moaning, I might as well flatter his manly ego. He let go of me and threw an arm over his face as he tried to catch his breath. Smirking at his panting, shuddering form, I stood up and went in the bathroom next door to clean myself up.

When I walked back in, he’d pulled his boxers back on, though he was still lying on the bed. He looked up with a goofy smile and opened his arms. Rolling my eyes, I made my way to the bed and slipped into his arms. He looked, well, spent, but happy. He nuzzled his face in my neck and lightly ran his hand up and down my torso.

“Can we cuddle?”

“No.”

He looked up in surprise and disappointment, his eyes imploring me adorably. I giggled and silently wondered at how he could go from looking like a sex god to a lost puppy.

“You meanie,” he pouted.

I raised an eyebrow.

“That’s not what you were saying a few minutes ago. ‘Oh, Cami please, please’,” I mocked him.

Instead of blushing or feeling awkward or anything a normal person would do, he just smirked and shifted us so he was lying on top of me.

“Want me to make it up to you?” He purred sexily into my ear.

I think my stomach dropped. I swallowed hard, not answering. His cute attitude had momentarily distracted me from how turned on I’d gotten watching him get off, but it was now back in full force. Not actually requiring an answer to his question, Calum started kissing up and down my neck until he found a soft spot, making me squirm. He turned all his attention to it, sucking the skin before biting down none-too-gently. He flicked out his tongue to appease the stinging sensation, instead sending a jolt of pleasure through me. He kept at it for a bit until I started softly moaning under my breath. I felt him smirk against my skin and slapped his shoulder. 

He left a kiss on the spot where he’d most probably left a huge hickey and kissed my lips again, his mouth molding onto mine and his tongue making its way inside. It wasn’t as rough or needy as before, but a mix of passion and laziness, as if we had all the time in the world. His fingertips trailed from my bare waist, where they’d been resting, to the waistband of my jeans. I let out an unintentional squeal as he pulled them down suddenly. His fingers traced circles on my legs the way they often did over the fabric of my pants when we sat next to each other. Except the feeling was quite different when his featherlight touch was on my bare skin; the circles higher and higher until they were just inches from my panties.

I was breathless and had lost all my concentration in the kiss, all my nerve-endings on high alert as his fingers made their tantalizing slow ascent towards the place I wanted them. As he reached the hem of my panties, I couldn’t help but squeeze my thighs together. He chuckled darkly and leaned away from me, breaking both the kiss and his teasing and causing me to whine.

Grabbing hold of my legs, he gently parted them again before settling himself between them. I gasped and my hand shot out to hold on to something, anything, as he took my panties off with his fucking teeth. His nose grazed my stomach and then lower as he pulled the lacy thing down my legs. My hand somehow found his shoulder and I dug them my fingers in it to try to steady myself as he licked his way back up my inner thigh. But as soon as he got to work, his fingers and mouth and tongue were too much for me, and my tight grip on him was no use. I moaned and whimpered as he started fingerfucking me. Within seconds, he had me going crazy. His fingers kept up a fast pace, slightly curling inside me and somehow managing to hit my G-spot every time, while his tongue circled the sensitive bud of nerves at my clit. I was a mess, panting and begging for him not to stop.

My left hand curled around the bedsheets as he gently bit my clit, a strangled gasp leaving my throat. My hips lifted to meet his fingers and I felt like I was teetering on the edge of a cliff. He suddenly replaced his fingers with his tongue and instantly I was imploding, seeing stars. I clenched my eyes closed as pleasure erupted everywhere inside of me, the wave so intense I completely lost any sense of time.

I didn’t know how long I’d lain there just trying to recover from the sensations when Calum kissed me. His face was clean, so I figured he’d taken a quick trip to the bathroom. His kiss was soft and it didn’t ask for anything, it was almost as if he wanted to thank me with every touch of his lips. I smiled against his mouth and broke the kiss. He grinned as I opened my eyes and handed me my panties. I pulled them on along with my top, and he put his jeans back on. And then we fell back on the bed, holding each other close.

...

Apparently his parents weren’t gonna make it home tonight, and Mali was crashing at a friend’s place, so we had the house for ourselves. Since neither of us wanted (or knew how) to cook, we ordered Chinese food and immediately started bickering about what to do. He wanted to watch a movie while I wanted to play videogames. 

“But we can never agree on what to watch!” I pointed out.

“But we can’t cuddle when we play!”

I huffed, unwilling to admit that he had a point.

“Fine, but I get to choose the movie.”

The doorbell rang and Calum skipped over to the door to to pay for the food. I narrowed my eyes at him and he threw me a careless smile, waving his hand at my face just as I was about to protest.

“You’ll just pay for the ice-cream next time we go out. Or frozen yogurt,” he amended.

I hid a smile at how he remembered that I didn’t like ice-cream, even though it was almost a month ago I’d mentioned it. What a cutie.

“Alright let’s go.”

He packed out the food and put it into bowls while I found Titanic on Netflix. Sitting next to me on his bed, (the covers of which I’d changed for obvious reasons) Calum rolled his eyes at my choice of movie but decied to go along with it anyway.

My phone buzzed and I glanced at it to see a text from Luke.

From Lukey-poo: all good? :3

I snapped a pic showing off the food, the TV and Calum before he could react, and sent it to my best friend.

To Lukey-poo: I’m in Heaven???

His response came quickly.

From Lukey-poo: are u guys eating on his bed?

Wow, so much judgement.

To Lukey-poo: yah, sue me

Then I muted my phone and put it away, nestling myself against Calum as the movie started. I let out a satisfied sigh as young DiCaprio’s face appeared on the screen. Despite him not being my usual type, his beauty knew no limits. People who thought otherwise were just in denial. Calum pouted as he saw my reaction to the actor, causing me to laugh.

“Don’t you go jelly on me,” I winked. “You know you’re hotter than him.”

“I know,” he shrugged, a superior smirk rising to his lips. “But I’d also like you not to drool over him.”

I stuck out my tongue to him, wiggling it grossly.

“See? No drooling.”

Calum chuckled and hugged me tight againt him.

“You’re so fucking adorable.”

Slightly blushing, I shut him up by shoving a nem into his mouth. Then we concentrated on the movie. To my utter joy, Calum seemed to be quite caught up in the story. It wasn’t my favorite movie, far from it, but I thought it got a lot of crap that it didn’t deserve, and it made me happy to see that he seemed to agree. I slowly drifted away, the tiredness I’d felt all week getting to me.

I was woken up by a soft sniffling sound. I blinked and realized we were at the part where the Titanic was sinking. As always, I watched in fascination as the captain sank with his ship, and I felt myself tearing up a bit. Only then did it hit me what the noise that had woken up might be. Peering up, my mouth fell open as I realized that I’d been right. Glistening trails of tears marked Calum’s cheeks.

“Did you cry?” I asked almost in wonder.

Somehow I couldn’t believe a cheesy love story like the one in Titanic could make the biggest fuckboy of the school cry. He shook his head furiously, refusing to meet my eyes, but I poked his cheek, cooing.

“I think you did.”

“It’s just…that moment when the mother reads her children a bedtime story, you know?”

I nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. It was the moment that most got to me, how the mom, knowing none of them would survive the wreck, tried to make her children fall asleep so they could have a peaceful death.

“I know,” I simply answered.

We finished watching the movie in silence, only snickering at the famous ‘I’ll never let you go’ scene, both of us having seen way too many memes and parodies of it to keep straight faces. 

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” I told him as the movie ended.

He shut the TV and nodded.

“I survived.”

“Oh fuck off!” I laughed, knowing he had actually enjoyed watching it.

He pulled me down on the bed with him, declaring he was tired and needed me to act as his human pillow.

“I feel so used right now. Am I just an object to you?” I fake-cried.

“No baby,” he crooned, pulling me tighter against him.

After a few seconds, he started humming under his breath.

“Cause I’m telling you, you’re all I need… I promise you, you’re all I see…”

I instantly recognized the song, and the words hit me hard. I felt my chest swell.

“So you can drag me through Hell, if it means I can hold your hand,” I sang along softly. “I will follow you, cause I’m under your spell, and you can throw me to the flames…I will follow you…”

“I love that song,” Calum said, his voice like melted butter.

“I love it too,” is what I said.

 

I love you, is what I didn’t say.  
Shit.


	36. Never be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also sort of smut?
> 
> (MUKE tho)

CHAPTER 36: Never be – 5 Seconds of Summer

Cami’s POV:

By the end of the next week, I was exhausted but happy. The endless tests had taken their toll on me, but now we finally had a good week off, in which I could basically do what I wanted. Read: spend time with Calum. Well, not exactly. I spent the first Saturday at Luke’s place, to see his family again. We had a blast continuing our Supernatural marathon, and he told me about how Lilah and him were doing great relationshipwise. That seemed to be the case of everyone. Louisa was constantly at my place, Ashton and Rebecca were living the dream and Jennifer and Ethan were as flawless as always.

As for me, the more time I spent with Calum, the more I forgot about the whole Plan thing. We were always goofing around, singing and dancing crazily to punky music, having intense videogame matches, cuddling as we watched each other’s favorite movies, lazily making out for hours…it was great.

...

On Monday afternoon, we were slouching in my bedroom, checking our social media as soft music played in the background. I was scrolling through my Tumblr feed when he started giggling and making cooing noises. I looked at him questioningly and he showed me a vine Mike had sent him of a small pug licking all over someone’s face. Admittedly, it was cute, but Cal’s look of utter adoration seemed a bit exaggerated to me.

“You really like dogs, huh?”

“They’re the greatest things to have ever walked the earth,” he said solemnly, then added with a half-smirk. “After me, of course.”

“Of course.”

He ignored my sass and looked back down at his phone, his grin widening at the sight of the dog. Considering how much he loved them, it was really too bad his mother was allergic. The hugest smile broke out on my face as something struck me.

“Hey, I have an idea!”

“Oh my god!” Cal yelled. “Pop the champagne!”

“Oh, shut up,” I rolled my eyes, though unable to smother down my excited expression.

Cal pulled me in for a hug as he silently chuckled at his own joke. Pouting, I bit his side over the fabric of his tee-shirt. He let out a silent exclamation and pushed me away.

“You kinky little shit.”

“Keep saying stuff like that and you’ll never know what my idea was.”

“Sorry babe. What were you saying?”

“So, you know how you can’t have a dog and all? Well no-one is allergic in my family. So we could just buy the dog you want and it would lowkey be yours even though it lives at my place!”

Cal’s mouth fell open.

“Oh my god. Oh my god you are perfect.”

I felt my cheeks heat up and quickly went on.

“Right, so what breed do you want?”

His eyes lit up like a little kid’s on Christmas.

“I don’t know! Can we check them all, pretty please?”

We somehow found a book about dog breeds in my parents’ library (probably something I’d had when I was little) and spent the next half-hour just listing the good and bad points of the dogs. Cal, of course, insisted that they were all perfect.

“What about a Newfoundland?” He asked.

“My aunt has one,” I mused, thinking of the bear-like fluffy thing she called a dog.

“So? Isn’t it the cutest piece of shit ever?”

“But it’s so big,” I frowned. “I don’t have enough space for that.”

Cal laid his head back and laughed.

“That’s what she said!”

I shook my head at his immaturity, though I had to admit I’d walked into this one.

“I don’t even wanna know which one you’re talking about,” I teased.

Cal got uncomfortable whenever I referred to his player ways, as he insisted it was behind him. Though he sometimes liked to smirk at me and ask me if I was jealous (obviously I lied and said I didn’t give two shits), mostly he felt bad about it.

“Shut your mouth,” he huffed.

“Make me,” I challenged.

His eyes darkened and a corner of his mouth curled upwards. Damn.

...

A few days later, it was time for Mike’s birthday. It was apparently to be held at the beach, and I basically knew no-one except for Cal and the birthday boy, as all the people were from his own grade. I promised my mom not to spend the night out, and Cal and I headed there on Betty. Speaking of my mom, she had made no comments on Cal’s frequently visiting, but I could tell she knew we weren’t just friends. As for my dad…well, we made sure he wasn’t around when Cal was.

When we arrived to the beach, ten or so other people were already there. The sun was setting and everyone was gathered around a bonfire, passing bottles around as they laughed. We went to give a hug to Mike before joining the circle. In the middle was the biggest pizza I’d ever seen, with candles and shit on it. After we had sung him a very loud and very out of tune happy birthday, Mike blew out his candles and started handing out slices. We all gave him our gifts – mostly video games and music stuff, and then people started talking together in small groups. Cal apparently already knew most of them, and he striked up a conversation with a couple of them. Feeling more than a bit awkward, I went and got me a bottle of alcohol. Oh whiskey, my old friend.

Two hours later, I was giggling like crazy with my new best friends – a girl whose name I couldn’t remember but who had a hella pretty nosering, and a guy with a cool Mohawk. We were running around in circles, re-enacting the scene between Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann when they get drunk on an island in the second movie. Mohawk-guy actually knew the words to the song, while Nosering-girl and I were just saying gibberish, then yelling ‘A pirate’s life for me’.

“Hey, wanna go skinny-dipping?” Nosering-girl asked.

My drunken mind thought that was the best idea it had heard in a long time.

“Oh my god yes!”

“Wait isn’t really really cold?” Mohawk-guy slurred.

“Chicken!” I yelled before starting to strip.

When Nosering-girl and I were down to our underwear, we realized Mohawk-guy still hadn’t budged, and I skipped over to him. He didn’t move as I took his jacket off, then his tee-shirt, and finally I started undoing his pants. I was just about to tug them down when an angry voice sounded behind.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

I whirled around to see Calum, his jaw clenched hard as he took in the sight of me scantily clad and taking another guy’s clothes off. I started giggling at what he must be thinking, and threw myself in his arms.

“Cal!”

He stumbled backwards but still caught hold of my legs as I wrapped them around his middle.

“Wanna go skinny-dipping with us?”

“What?”

I gestured towards Nosering-girl, who was already halfway to the sea, her bare butt and back very white in the darkness. 

“What the fuck?” Cal asked. “Are you guys crazy?”

“Come on!” I yelled and threw off the rest off my clothes. 

Cal made a sound deep in his throat and ran after me as I sprinted towards Nosering-girl.

“Oh damn,” she laughed as she saw me naked.

“Don’t even look, Eden,” Cal warned as we slowly got into the water.

He, however, didn’t follow his own advice as his eyes raked up and down my exposed body. I shivered, and I wasn’t sure whether it was because the ocean was freezing or because of the way Cal was looking at me. So I just immersed myself in the water, letting out a silent scream. I felt the waves wash over me as I swam further into the ocean. When I broke the surface, the water went to my waist. 

“Oh my god!” I yelled. “It’s cold!”

“I know right!” Eden called from where she was still standing next to Cal.

He, however, fixed his anxious gaze on me.

“Cami, get back here!” 

“Why?” I giggled. “This is fun!” 

“It’s dangerous!”

I let out a squeal as a wave lifted me up, causing me to lose my footing.

“Fuck,” I heard Cal swear.

He hurriedly discarded his shirt and jeans and started to swim towards me. I smiled widely as he came up for some air a foot or so away from me.

“Hey babe,” I said flirtatiously.

“Cami, come back here,” he simply said, his voice a mix between annoyance and worry.

Except I didn’t understand why he’d be mad. It was fun in the water, much better than on the beach where I knew no-one. And Calum had abandoned me! He had no right to tell me to go back to him. As I didn’t make a move to go back to the shore, he swore again and padded closer to me. The second he put his hand on my arm, I jumped on him, weaving my legs around his bare waist.

“What are you doing?”

I smiled mischievously and pressed my upper body against his.

“I’m naked, and no-one can see us right now,” I purred into his ear, teasingly grinding my naked core against his growing hard-on.

“Oh fuck,” he said softly. “Cami don’t do this right now. Please—Fuck. Please Cami, it’s dangerous out here at night.”

“I guess I’ll just have to hang on tight,” I smirked and arched my body against his again.

“Dammit.”

He drew a shuddering breath as I slanted my mouth over his, but refused to kiss me back, instead starting to walk back to the beach. I didn’t give up this easily though, using the position at my advantage as I paired grinding on his boxer-clad crotch and tracing circles on his lower abdomen with my free hand, the other one wrapped around his neck to ensure I didn’t fall. I kept kissing him hard, repeatedly asking for entrance with my tongue. I huffed a frustrated breath at his lack of response and bit down harshly on his plump lower lip. He let an almost inaudible groan and tightened his hold on my thighs, but kept walking. Knowing he only needed the slightest of pushes before breaking, I let my lips ghost over his ear.

“I want your touch all over me, on my thighs, on my stomach, on my breasts, on my lips…not the ones on my face. I want you to fuck me so roughly I’m shaking all over and all I can do is beg for more. And I want to lick every inch of your skin and learn by heart all the ways to make you moan…”

His breathing had gotten uneven and raspy during my speech, and I ran the tip of my tongue to his earlobe, which I gently bit.

Cal snapped. He finally kissed me back, parting his mouth only to immediately take control of my tongue, and pulling me even closer until his hips dug into mine, making my eyes nearly roll back in pleasure. I slipped my fingers under the waistband of his boxers, just grazing the soft skin between his V-line, and he emitted a low growl against my mouth. I giggled and was about to dip my head down to kiss his neck when someone’s shout interrupted us.

“Hey guys! Do you plan on having sex in the water?”

We broke apart almost immediately, although Cal didn’t let me go, probably not too keen on people seeing his girlfriend naked.

“We’ll be right up!” Cal yelled back. At my pout, he smirked. “We can just continue this later,” he whispered in my ear.

We stood a bit awkwardly in the water until Nosering-girl (Eden?) padded towards us, holding Cal’s tee-shirt in her hands.

“I’m guessing you want this?”

“Thank you so much!” I smiled at the girl.

I slipped from Cal’s arms and hid behind him as I tugged the too-large tee on. Peering around his protective body, I saw more than half of the people from the party looking at us from the beach, a few of them even whistling. Cal let out an annoyed groan and pulled me behind him as we trailed through the water towards the beach again.

I threw myself down on the sand, never minding the fact that Calum’s wet tee clung to me uncomfortably, and that the sand would probably make it itchy. I’d just have to take a shower later. Contrary to my hopes, Cal didn’t sit with me, but walked away from the beach altogether. I frowned. Was he mad at me? Before I could dwell on the sad thought, a few others from the party including Mike sat down in a circle with me.

“Wanna play a game?” Mohawk-guy-who’d-been-too-chicken-to-get-in-the-water asked.

People erupted in happy cheers and started playing never-have-I-ever because they had no imagination.

“Never have I ever given someone a blowjob,” some guy said.

The majority of girls drank, as well as Mike. Everyone stared at him, and he flashed a half-embarassed, half-defiant grin.

“Mind your own business. Never have I ever lost a game of COD.”

Everyone rolled their eyes at his bragging and drank.

“Never have I ever kissed someone of the same sex,” a girl said.

“You’re missing out mate,” Eden laughed before chucking down her drink.

Almost everyone did the same. I didn’t know exactly what I was drinking, but it didn’t seem strong. Which was good, considering Cal hated me when I was drunk. He still hadn’t come back. The thought made my heart sink, and then some foggy part of my mind reminded me that this was all a game to me anyway and I had to break up with him, so maybe it was best if he didn’t like me. I wanted to cry. I traced lines in the sand with my fingertip, humming a soft song under my breath.

I was distracted from my depressing thoughts by a towel falling on my shoulders. I jumped and looked up to see a fully clothed Cal reaching his hand out to me. I quickly took it and let him pull to my feet. Someone from the circle whistled, staring at my bare legs. Cal tugged me to his chest and stared at the boy intimidatingly.

“What was that?” He asked, his voice a low growl.

“Nothing sir!” The boy said, pretending to be terrified before exploding in fits of giggles.

Cal’s jaw tightened and he turned around, dragging me a bit away. Once we were out of sight on the other side of the bonfire, he helped me out of his wet tee. I quickly dried myself off, appreciating how his eyes never strayed from mine. He soundlessly handed me a pair of gray joggers and a tee-shirt.

“Where did you get this?” I asked him, looking at the clothes dubiously.

“They’re Mike’s,” he told me. “He lives close-by, so I went and grabbed some clothes and towels. Now for God’s sake please cover up.”

I blushed slightly and put the clothes on, studying how Mike’s clothes were a bit too big for Cal, making him look like an adorable teddy bear.

“So you didn’t leave me?” 

“What? No!”

“I thought you were mad at me and left,” I said, staring at the ground as my lower lip quivered.

“Baby…” He sighed and pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly. “I’d never do that.”

I hid my face in his shoulder, inhaling his reassuring scent. 

“Who would’ve thought you were an emotional drunk?” He chuckled, pecking the top of my head.

“I’m usually more of a horny drunk.”

“Yeah, I’m aware,” Cal giggled.

“Did you just giggle?”

“No…”

“You’re too damn cute for your own good, Hood.”

“Look who’s speaking,” he said, kissing my head softly again.

Pulling away, I laced his fingers with mine and we started walking to where we’d left our clothes. We gathered the wet, dirty skinnies and tank-top and put them in a plastic bag, then went to put it in Cal’s bike. Once everything was in place, we joined the others in the circle next to the bonfire. As soon as he’d sat down, Cal pulled me onto his lap, where I made myself comfortable. Sitting sideways, I played with his hair a bit, wondering at how the water had made it all curly.

“I’m sorry I left you alone,” he whispered in my ear.

“Twice.”

“Twice?”

“I didn’t know anyone, Cal. You went to talk to people and I felt lost and awkward. That’s why I got drunk.”

“I’m sorry,” he sighed, “I didn’t realize.”

“I’m sorry I got very drunk and then ignored you when you said going in the ocean was dangerous.”

“You didn’t realize,” he said, his mouth curling upwards.

“And then I kinda dry-humped you… Sorry about that.”

“You were so annoyingly distracting,” he chuckled in my ear, making a shiver run down my spine. “But I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it.”

I clamped my mouth shut to avoid giggling and hid my face in his shoulder again, the remnants of alcohol in my veins making me coy.

“I like your hair like this,” I told him, my voice slightly muffled.

“Like what? Oh god. Oh no, is it curly?”

“Yep.”

He groaned, making me laugh again.

“I like it,” I repeated.

“I don’t.”

“Well I do.”

My phone, which I’d retrieved from my jean pocket, buzzed, signalling a text. I grabbed it and squinted at the screen.

“Apparently Luke has a lip piercing now,” I stated, raising my eyebrows. “And he can’t remember getting it.”

“Does it look good?”

I asked Luke for a pic, and my phone buzzed ten seconds later, showing his pink lip adorned by a stainless steel lipring.

“Fuck yeah. Lilah is going to freak.”

Grinning, Cal took the phone from my hand and gave it to Mike, who was sitting a few people away. Mike’s eyes widened impossibly.

“What the fuck?”

He started typing away at the phone at an impossibly quick rate, eyebrows furrowed. Five minutes later, he walked over and sat next to us, handing me back my phone.

“So he got drunk with Louisa and your brother, and when he woke up he had a lipring. Can’t say it’s a bad thing,” Mike shrugged. “It’s hot.”

“Are you bisexual?” I asked him casually.

Mike did a double-take.

“What?”

“Are you?”

“Even if I was, what’s it to you?” He asked me, getting all defensive.

“Cause I’m pretty sure Luke is too,” I winked.

Mike gave me a warning glare and I laughed out loud.

“Just saying.”


	37. Blessed with a curse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> last chap of the day
> 
> (please don't kill me)

CHAPTER 37: Blessed with a curse – Bring Me the Horizon

Cami’s POV:

“I’m so bored right now,” Luke randomly said, resting his chin his hands.

“It’s Physics dude, what did you expect?”

Our teacher hadn’t improved during the vacation, and she was still as utterly boring. Thankfully, she was also half-deaf, which allowed Luke and I to carry our conversation without too many problems. Jenifer and Ethan, sitting behind us, had also completely disinterested themselves from the class, though I wouldn’t be willing to bet they were as PG as Luke and I. My best friend had spent the first twenty minutes of the hour explaining to me exactly how he’d drunkenly let Louisa dare him to get a piercing and then actually gone through with it.

“You’re completely out of control,” I grinned. “What did your mom say?”

“She freaked,” Luke rolled his eyes. “What did you expect?”

“I think it looks good,” I nodded to myself. “So does Mike.”

“Michael?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, what? One, when did you hang out with him, two, why did you show him and three, he likes it?”

“For his birthday, remember? He had a party with some people from his grade, plus Cal and I. Don’t ask me why I showed him, I was drunk. Besides I think it was Cal. And yeah, I think his exact words were ‘it’s hot”. He was the one who went crazy on you after you showed the picture.”

“Wait. Are you saying the messages describing how sexy piercings are and how it’ll draw attention to my lips weren’t from you?” Luke asked wide-eyed.

“Uh…I wasn’t aware he’d done that, but yeah. I only texted you this morning.”

“Wow.”

“Hey, did you know he was bisexual?”

“No… Why are you asking—Cami no. No no no get this idea out of your head. I can see right through you Cami and no. Firstly, I don’t like boys, secondly I actively hate this one.”

“The line between hate and love is a fine one,” I quoted wisely, but I was clearly kidding.

“Honestly Cami if I’d known you’d spend your time trying to hook me up with everyone you see, I wouldn’t have been so excited for you to move here.”

My jaw dropped.

“Ouch.”

“You know I love you,” he chuckled. “But I won’t let you influence me this time.”

“Hey, it worked with Lilah, no?”

“Yes, and now we’re in a happy relationship that you should not try to…well, whatever you’re trying to do, with weird comments about Mike.”

“What did Lilah have to say to the piercing?”

“She liked it,” Luke admitted with a slightly embarrassed grin. “But she was also mad because I can’t kiss anyone for like, two weeks?”

I gasped.

“Oh no! How will the world survive without your kisses?”

“Oh, fuck off.”

The first words that came out of Louisa’s mouth when she saw us in the hallway was ‘oh my god every girl on this entire planet needs to thank me right now cause holy cow I’m a genius’. My brother, whose hand she was holding, shot her a dubious glance as she stared at Luke’s lips.

“Yep, yep, yep. This was a really good idea.”

“Okay, as your boyfriend who does not have a brand new lipring, this is getting kinda uncomfortable,” Sam pointed out.

“You’re hot too, if it helps,” Louisa offered.

“Oh thanks, you’re an angel,” he rolled his eyes.

“I know,” she smiled sweetly.

“Hey bro,” I greeted him.

“Hey sis.”

“I hate you for finishing the cereals this morning.”

“You finished the OJ.”

“You stole my baby-of-the-family status when you were born.”

Sam wisely ignored my comeback.

“You never eat breakfast, how was I supposed to know you were going to want some today?”

“Maybe if you thought about others than yourself from time to time it could help.”

“Why do you exist again?” He asked.

Suddenly a pair of arms wove themselves around my waist and I resisted the urge to shriek.

“You did not just say that,” Cal said, his chin coming to rest on my shoulder. “Obviously she needs to exist, otherwise who could I use as a portable pillow?”

“Okay, you are going to calm down right now,” Luke intervened. “You guys might be in a relationship blablabla but Cami is my pillow. She’s my cuddle buddy, she’s been for years. Go hug Mike or some shit.”

Calum simply raised an eyebrow.

“Tell me, did that lipring grow you balls?”

He let out a laugh at Luke’s scowl.

“Don’t laugh,” I told him. “Luke’s right. Besties come first.”

We fist-bumped while Calum’s face darkened. 

“Oki, we’re out!” Louisa chirped and dragged Sam away from us and to a safe place.

Watching Cal glower at Luke, I quickly groped for a safe subject of conversation. Fellow interests included: food, video games, music. This should be okay.

“Hey Cal, did you know Luke plays guitar?”

“Yeah you told me,” Cal said, obviously not giving a shit.

“Um…hey Luke, did you know Cal plays bass?”

Luke’s eyebrows raised and he looked impressed.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, and he can sing too!”

Cal rolled his eyes as I grinned.

“You guys should totally start a band! Doesn’t Mike play something?”

“Guitar,” Cal answered.

“There you go!”

“Even if we wanted to do something and even if we could, we’d need a drummer,” Cal said, shrugging as if there was no way in hell we knew one.

“Hmm, too bad Ashton plays drums,” I grinned cheekily.

Cal shot me a disbelieving look and I stuck my tongue out to him. Then the bell rung and I hugged Luke, ignoring his warning look. I knew exactly what he meant to tell me. What was the point in trying to start stupid, beautiful things like a band when I’d break up with the boy anyway?

...

Saturday afternoon, I was alone home, lazily doodling in my notebook instead of concentrating on my work, when the doorbell rang. I figured it was either my brother who had forgotten his keys or my sister who had forgotten her keys, and didn’t move my ass from the chair. Surely if it was important they would call me. Two minutes later, my phone rang, Kellin’s delicious voice echoing in my room. I groaned and picked it up, not bothering to check the caller ID.

“So I’ve been waiting outside for the past five minutes,” Calum said smoothly. “Care to open for me?”

“Oh uh sure,” I spluttered, a bit embarrassed.

I sent a look at my mirror and internally screamed at how terrible I looked. My hair was a mess from where I hadn’t brushed it, my make-up from yesterday was smeared and I was wearing my old PJs. I grabbed my hairbrush and tried to tame my curls while looking desperately for something nice-ish to wear. I threw on a Metallica tee-shirt and leggings before hurrying downstairs and almost hurling the front door open. Calum was there, looking perfect as always.

“Is there no-one else home?” He asked, bending down to kiss my cheek.

“My parents are having lunch with friends and I think Sam is with Louisa.”

“Where else would he be?” Calum grinned. “Wanna come to mine?”

“I have homework?” My statement turned into a question halfway through at Calum’s pout.

“It doesn’t matter, come do your homework at my place.”

And that’s how at four pm on Saturday, I was sitting with crossed legs on Calum’s bed, annotating the Great Gatsby as he tried to figure out how to play You’re beautiful by James Blunt on the guitar. I had originally wanted him to do his English homework too, but when he didn’t budge, I told him to learn a song instead. Of course I hadn’t meant for him to choose the possibly most stalkerish and frankly unnerving song ever, but hey, at least he was being productive. Looking up from my book to see him scrounging up his adorably squishy nose as he fumbled with the strings (“there’s two too many, this is bullshit”) was totally worth him whispering creepy words into my neck.

After a while he got bored and put the guitar away, instead bringing me to his lap. I smiled a bit but kept focused on the book as he rested his chin on my shoulder, reading with me. Knowing he was watching, I wrote with my pen on the margin.

Stop staring you doofus

He smothered a laugh against my shoulder and placed a kiss where the soft material of my sweater had glided down.

You’re so annoying

“You’re so cute,” he just answered.

Cute is such a condescending term omg. I’m not a dog and I’m not cute, I’m punk rock.

He giggled, then abruptly stopped as if realization had hit.

“I love you,” he whispered against my shoulder in something like wonder. Then again, louder, as if coming to terms with reality. “I love you.”

My lungs gave out. I paled, all the blood leaving my face, and the pen slipped from my fingers, dropping to the ground along with my guts. Time froze. Everything stopped and cracked and fell apart, and I was left staring at the remains, a wave of nausea overcoming me. My heart hadn’t sunk; it had disappeared, leaving me numb and hollow. 

Slow, so slow, I turned around to face him. He was frowning, his eyes slightly wide as he tried to analyze my reaction. I saw his lips shape my name but there was a slight buzzing in my ears and I couldn’t hear anything. So I kissed him. I kissed him long and hard and desperately, as if hanging on to something I knew was doomed. He kissed me back eagerly, obviously confused but never denying a good make-out. I made sure to commit every beautiful curve of his lips to memory, the intoxicating taste of his tongue on me, the soft touch of his slightly calloused fingers.

I broke the kiss. There was no point. So I leaned back, smiled coldly and said:

“We’re done.”

And then I left.

...

An hour later, I somehow found myself ringing on Luke’s doorbell. It was Liz who answered, and she took one look at me before yelling for her son to come down. I hadn’t cried. I was trembling though, the harsh, painful beatings of my heart raging war against the iciness steeped in my bones. The pain was right there, on the tip of my tongue, demanding to be felt. I just wanted friendly arms around me when I fell apart.

Luke took my hand and dragged me up to his bedroom, tugging me along as he shut the door and sat on the bed.

“What’s wrong, Cami?”

I didn’t answer, keeping my gaze fixed on the ground as I desperately tried to fight against my failing limbs.

“Cami?” Luke asked, this time sounding alarmed. “Cami please talk to me!”

My eyes snapped to his, and he drew a sharp breath.

“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” 

Luke’s mouth opened in shock at my harsh tone before he seemed to understand.

“You did it, didn’t you?” He shook his head almost in disbelief.

“Yes I fucking did. He told me he loved me, and I broke up with him. Are you happy now? Are you fucking happy?” My voice rose to a scream and I started dry-heaving, pain lashing through me as tears clouded my vision. 

“Baby no,” he whispered as he pulled me into a tight hug.

Luke held me and rocked me back and forth while I cried, murmuring soft ‘let it all out’s and ‘shhh’s and ‘it’s gonna be okay’s in a soothing tone. I don’t know how long we stayed locked up in each other’s embrace before my cries came to a stop. But eventually my breathing evened and Luke loosened his hold on me. His eyebrows furrowed as he shook his head at me.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Cami? Why didn’t you tell me you were in love with him?

“I didn’t know I was until it was too late,” I said in a strangled whisper.

“But why did you do it?” He asked uncomprehendingly. “I would never have wanted you to break it off if I’d known you had real feelings for him.”

“I don’t know—I was scared… He was going to break my heart anyway,” I whimpered out.

“And now you broke both of yours,” he sighed.

“What’s done is done,” I said bitterly. “I knew I was fucked the second he kissed me.”

“You’re staying the night here,” Luke told me. “We’ll get some fro-yo and watch a stupid chick-flick, yeah?”

I nodded and managed a smile, because my heart might be bleeding for another boy, but Luke was still the best thing that had ever happened to me.


	38. Get down on your knees and tell me you love me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO!! I am back with the last chapters of the story :D just one thing to say : drama dram DRAMA

CHAPTER 38: Get down on your knees and tell me you love me – All Time Low

Calum’s POV:

I was in shock, staring at the door from which Cami had disappeared. She had forgotten to give me my heart back before leaving, apparently, or at least not all of it, because I had never felt a pain like this. I sat there dumbly and I didn’t understand why blood didn’t come gushing out of my chest because surely if it hurt so badly there had to be some sort of physical evidence of it. But no. 

I couldn’t wrap my head around this. I refused to understand it. Not only had Cami just broken up with me without explaining herself, but she’d done it right after I’d confessed my love for her. As if she’d been waiting for me to say that before leaving. As if the whole point of our relationship had been for me to fall in love with her. As if it had all been a lie just to break my heart. Betrayed didn’t even begin to describe how I felt. But I wasn’t exactly angry either. I was too tired to be angry, too caught up in the fact that I would never hold her again, never kiss her lips, never hear her sing, never make her giggle, never call her mine again. And it fucking hurt. It hurt so much that there was a hole in me, the one she’d filled with her stupid jokes and her stupid laugh and her stupid eyes, and that she had left a knife in. Had any of it even been real?

My mind reeling, I called Mike. It went straight to voicemail.

To Mike: I need you.

Fifteen minutes of blankly staring at the ground and fighting back tears later, my door bust open. I didn’t even look up. Mike was on me within seconds, pulling me into a hug so tight it hurt, so tight I could almost forget my pain and concentrate on its comforting warmth. Almost.

“It’s okay,” he crooned in my ear. “It’s gonna be okay.”

And he held me as I cried.

When I had somewhat calmed down, I explained to Mike what had happened, watching his face darken in anger as he slowly put two and two together.

“She played you,” he realized. “She played you from day one.”

I remembered the first day, the not-so-subtle glances she’d sent me, and then the disinterest and cold shoulder of the following week. Everything to both grate on my nerves and interest me. And it had worked. I’d played into her hands like a fool, thinking I was weaving her in my own game, but she had always been a few steps ahead of me. I resisted the urge to go throw up and simply nodded.

“This is all Luke’s work,” Mike suddenly breathed. “It’s the only way. Why else would she have wanted to do this to you? He wanted to get back at us for Rebecca, so he made her seduce you. Fuck, this is all my fault.”

“Don’t you dare blame yourself,” I gritted out. “It’s my fault for not realizing something was off. I let her get to me completely, and don’t you dare say it’s your fault that she won. Because I’m the one who believed her.”

I couldn’t help but rake my brain for small signs I should’ve picked up on. She’d been too perfect, I realized. The music taste, the love for bikes, the mix of sweetness and recklessness…I should’ve known. She’d wanted to make me pay for the hearts I’d broken and fuck, she’d done well. Because even now, I kept trying to hold on to some things that must have been real. You didn’t randomly learn the lyrics to Follow you just because your fake boyfriend might know it. You didn’t unconsciously trace the edges of his tattoo while kicking his ass on Mario Kart because you thought he might find it endearing. You didn’t kiss with that much passion unless you felt something. Did you?

There was no sense in re-playing these memories, it only served to hurt me, but I couldn’t help myself. Surely I couldn’t be expected to so quickly let go of what had taken up the center stage of my life for the past month, could I? As if sensing my pain, Mike picked up my guitar from where I’d let it fall a few hours before. My heart clenched at the thought. That was before I’d found out that the angel reading on my lap was the devil in disguise. Mike strummed the chords expertly, and started humming.

“Don’t shiver, don’t give up. Don’t quiver, you’re enough. You will be just fine, tonight… Baby when it’s cold outside, I will keep you warm, save you from the storm. I will light a fire and the embers bright will guide you through the night. When it’s cold outside, I will light a fire…”

I let his soothing voice wash over me as he continued singing Rachel Taylor’s Light a fire. As he finished the song, I pulled the covers over both our heads. He giggled and I pulled him into another tight hug. I sighed against his shoulder. I just wished I could forget it all and start again. Without Cami.

...

The next couple of days, that’s exactly what I tried to do. I skipped French classes (cause who gave a fuck anyway?) and the one time I did go to English, she was absent. Mike and I had lunch with the other guys and I made a conscious effort not to ever look in her direction. I didn’t wanna see her. I didn’t wanna see her laughing or reading or talking or just being there. I didn’t want to see any proof that I really hadn’t mattered to her, even if I knew it was true. I just…couldn’t.

I also tried to ignore the questions of my mates and curious girls who pushed their breast in my face and asked why I wasn’t with Cami. And everytime it felt like I was being punched in the stomach and it took me a few tries to breathe normally again. She’d robbed me of my heart, she’d robbed me of my sleep, she’d robbed me of my life. Everytime I tried to distract myself, my thoughts kept going back to her. I hadn’t only been betrayed; I’d lost the person I was in love with, the person I’d thought she was. I kept wondering. Had it been worth it, making me hurt so bad? Had it been worth the hours of pretending to like me? Had she achieved her goal? I wanted to puke.

Thursday was the first time I saw her. She was making her way to the soccer field, talking to Jeremy. There was a churning feeling in my stomach as I saw her smile at something he said, and it physically pained me. Despite myself, I couldn’t help but drink her in. The way her auburn hair, as she liked to call it, blew slightly in the wind, the way her eyes and nose crinkled slightly as she laughed at something Jeremy said, the way her shorts showed off the smooth skin of her long, shapely legs. 

Just then, she looked up and met my gaze. Even from that distance, I saw her face pale and the spark in her blue eyes die out. I let out a sound in my throat and tore my eyes away from hers, ignoring the agonizing feeling somewhere in my chest. Instead, I observed Erik and Gabriel’s futile attempts to chat Grace up. She wasn’t even listening to them, her gaze locked on…well, me. I frowned as I saw my ex head up to me, a queasy feeling in my stomach. I knew she was going to ask me about Cami, and I wasn’t up for that. Especially not with her around. But I couldn’t exactly turn around and run, so I locked my jaw and braced myself.

“What happened?” She demanded, her expression telling me she wouldn’t accept half-ass answers.

So I decided I might just as well tell her the truth. To be fair, I was maybe a tiny bit pissed at her. She was the one who’d encouraged me to make nice with Cami again, and the one who’d given me hope about her maybe liking me. And look where it’d brought me. I would’ve been better off with her mad at me forever. I’d be sad, but at least I wouldn’t feel so utterly cheated and broken-hearted.

“She played me. It was a game all along.”

Grace’s mouth fell in shock.

“What?”

“Yeah. She made me pay for all the disgusting things I’ve done to girls. Apparently it was my turn to be heartbroken,” I said bitterly.

“Oh my god,” Grace simply breathed. “I am so sorry.”

I scoffed.

“Shouldn’t you be happy that all of those girls got their revenge or whatever?”

“What? No. It’s old history, and honestly I couldn’t give less of a fuck about them right now. Are you okay?”

I scowled.

“Do I fucking look okay to you?”

“No,” she said softly. “You really don’t. But you also really don’t look like the asshole I dated either. So maybe some good did come out of this.”

My eyes flashed and I snapped.

“Nothing good came out of it, do you hear me? I let myself be fooled by her little quirks and jokes and smiles and she made me want to be better and have hope in future, and then she fucking left. She replaced the bad with good, and then she took it all away. Do you get it? Do you fucking get it? There’s nothing good about that. I was maybe bad before, but now I’m empty. And it’s so much worse.”

By the end of my tirade, I was slightly panting, and my vision was blurred. I willed my tears back and turned on my heels, walking back to the coach. I could feel Grace’s eyes on me the whole time but refused to see her sympathy or pity. At this point, I couldn’t take it. So I just concentrated on football, thanking everything in the world that Cami wasn’t good enough that I ever crossed paths with her during the two games.

An hour and a half later, the period was finally over and I groaned at the thought of having French. Apparently the teacher had sent my parents an email telling them that I’d been cutting classes, and they were less than happy to hear that. So now I had to go. And inevitably see Cami. I’d just gotten out of the changing rooms when my phone buzzed and I leaned against the wall to read the text.

From Mike: U in for takeout at my place tomorrow?

I replied with a ‘fuck yeah’ and looked up to see that Eric and a couple of giggling girls had followed my example and were attempting to look cool, chatting in front of the changing rooms. I resisted the urge to scoff. Then, the door to the girls’ changing rooms opened and Cami got out, followed closely by Luke. What the hell had he been doing inside her changing room? They were laughing mindlessly and walking towards us. I felt like socking something at the sight of them. Instead, I grabbed one of the bimboes next to me and kissed her. She emitted a small squeal of surprise before kissing me back hungrily, shoving her tongue down my throat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cami walk away in the other direction.

...

During the next two weeks, I started to pick up old habits. Girls would throw themselves at me, and I’d use them before throwing them away. They helped keeping my mind off of Cami, who didn’t seem the slightest bit affected by the break-up. Well, obviously, since it had all been a joke to her. Of course neither Mike nor I had kept contact with the rest of her friends. We just ignored each other. I thought maybe if I ignored her existence, I would eventually stop feeling the raw ache in my heart and butterflies in my stomach whenever I heard her laugh or speak up in class. Girls and alcohol helped a lot, but most of all Mike. He was constantly by my side when I was down, watching movies with me and playing video games and making sure I didn’t drink enough to go into coma. Mali and my mother ventured to ask about her once, but it took one look for them to never mention her again. Same went for my other friends.

That is, except for Grace. For some reason she’d decided to spend time with me from time to time, as if she wanted to keep up this friendship we had. And I knew it wasn’t to reinstall the relationship we had before, because she was now dating this guy outside of school. She’d actually fallen for one of the guys her parents had presented her to. If you asked me, that was hilarious, because it was exactly to prevent her parents from forcing a guy on her that she’d ever dated me in the first place. Guessed life was ironic. Just like how it had taken less than two months for me, the biggest heartbreaker of our grade, to get his heart broken over some soulless bitch. Speaking of which, Grace was once again bringing up the subject. 

“I don’t understand,” she shook her head. “There’s something wrong about this whole thing.”

“Can’t you just let it go?” I bit out, angrily stabbing at my food with my fork.

“Yeah, like you’ve let it go,” she scoffed.

I glared at her, but she just shrugged her shoulders, unimpressed.

“Something isn’t right. If Cami had been playing you all along, surely she wouldn’t be so sad…”

“Sad? She’s not sad,” I laughed bitterly. “She’s busy laughing with her friends and flirting with every guy in the school and passing all her classes.”

“I heard her cry in the bathroom the other day,” Grace said in a level voice, staring at me.

My lips parted in shock.

“What?”

“Yeah. So don’t let yourself fooled by appearances. Just because someone looks happy doesn’t mean they are. You more than anyone should know.”

And with that, she left the table.


	39. I'm not okay (I promise)

CHAPTER 39: I’m not okay (I promise) – My Chemical Romance

Cami’s POV:

“Luke you’re being stupid!” I whisper-yelled at the boy.

He was goofily trying to imitate our Biology teacher and pulling faces at me, very much not doing the exercises we had been assigned. Ever since I had broken up with Calum (even though only Lilah and Luke knew the details), all of my friends had made an extra effort to lighten me up, either by being thoughtful and affectionate or, as it was the case right now, acting completely foolish.

I finally let myself laugh at his ridiculous antics, before seeing the teacher walking towards us from the corner of my eye and hushing my best friend hurriedly. He shut up and mustered an innocent-looking smile as she stopped by our desks, demanding to see what we’d been doing in all this time. He fluttered his eyelashes at her and sighed sadly, pulling the puppy-dog eyes and pout. Wow, he was really going for it.

“I don’t understand the third question…”

All her annoyance melted away and she smiled at him, won over by his cuteness. As she started explaining what he ‘hadn’t understood’, I found myself needing a break. All this geology was boring me to no end, and since I hadn’t done my make-up correctly this morning (my alarm was late, long story), it would be a good time to hit the bathrooms. 

“Excuse me, may I go to the toilets?”

The teacher emerged from her fascinating discussion with Luke, who was just blinking and smiling angelically at her as she rattled on, and nodded at me. I scoffed at my best friend as I left the classroom. It was almost scary how he had all the teachers wrapped around his finger.

The corridors were clear of people, and I barged into the bathrrom without checking to see if it was empty. There was a sound of someone falling to the ground and I looked up, half-expecting to see a random girl crying on the floor. Maybe we could do it together, I thought not so ironically. But what I saw was so much worse.

My heart dropped to the floor and shattered into a thousand glassy pieces as Calum’s mouth fell open. The blonde chick vainly tried to cover herself up as she stood up from where Calum had probably let her fall in shock. I ignored them both and went over to the sink, feeling oh-so-empty as I stared at my reflection, pretending to touch up my make-up. I ignored them as Calum shuffled from foot to foot, trying to form words and failing. I ignored them as the girl giggled an awkward apology. I ignored them as she kissed Calum’s cheek ‘goodbye’ and ‘see you later’. I ignored them as he didn’t answer her affective gesture, his gaze fixed on me and all trace of color having left his face. I ignored them as she stalked out of the bathroom, the clicking of her high-heels haunting me as she disappeared down the hallway. 

I put my make-up stuff away, satisfied with the way the winged eyeliner made the blue of my eyes pop out. I slightly ruffled my hair and steeled myself for what was about to happen before turning on my heels, facing the boy of both my dreams and nightmares. I forced a small cold smile on my face.

“Hello, Calum,” I said in a conversational tone. “Were you ever told these bathrooms were for girls?”

His jaw tightened and his eyes flashed, as it finally seemed to register what was going on. The girl who had made him fall in love with her and then walked out on him had just caught him making out with someone else and was acting like it was nothing. The transformation was immediate. Within seconds, he went from slightly lost-looking and embarrassed to absolutely furious.

“What the fuck, Cami? Are you just gonna ignore everything now? You can’t just stand there and say nothing!”

I raised my eyebrows, refusing to acknowledge his words.

“I believe you’re standing in my way?”

I somehow managed to keep my voice both extremely cool and polite, but I didn’t know how long I would be able to keep it up before I exploded into tears. My ice-queen game might be strong, but it had limits. The angry light in Calum’s eyes faded with a sigh and he simply removed himself from my way. Ignoring the crunching sound my feet made as I stepped all over the fallen pieces of my heart on the floor, I walked out, head held up high.

...

On Thursday, my Math teacher decided that it would be fun to make us train for the exams we were supposed to take at the end of the year. I sighed and tried to concentrate on the sheet of paper in front of me. But the numbers swirled together as images pressed against the back of my eyelids. Calum laughing at my terrible singing as we danced around in his room, Calum tenderly tracing the bow of my lower lip as our ragged breaths meshed together, Calum whooping in joy as we sped through the streets on Betty, Calum sneakily holding me against him as we waited in the lunch line, Calum Calum Calum Calum—

I slammed my pen against the table and stood up, ignoring the curious looks of my classmates and the alarmed cry of the teacher as I almost ran for the door. I automatically headed for the bathroom, then abruptly remembered what had happened last time and turned on my heels. Instead, I went outside. It was so sunny. It seemed somewhat wrong to be sad on a sunny day. Movies and books never showed you sad, sunny days. It was always dark and rainy and depressing, like the outside had to match the inside. But it was all fake. Because while you were drowning in your memories and choking on your guilt and misery, the rest of the world moved on without a care. The sun would continue to shine, kids would continue to play in the park, Calum would continue to sleep around…

The tears had started falling before I’d realized. It made no sense, all of it. And I knew it. But it didn’t change anything. Because even though it was all my fault, even though I’d broken up with him to uphold the end of a bargain I knew was stupid the instant his lips touched mine, even though I only had myself to blame for ending the first relationship that had ever meant something to me, I was miserable.

And I might try to put up a façade of happiness, I was not okay. But I had to try to keep up appearances, because he couldn’t know I loved him. He couldn’t know I actually fell for my own Plan. I had to make him think I was cold and bitchy and uncaring because then maybe he would keep away and I could try to mend my own heart. And maybe if he hated me it wouldn’t hurt him that much.

But fuck, it hurt me. But I deserved it. I deserved it for being a complete coward.

...

“Nobody likes you, everyone left you!”

I raised the bottle to the genius of Billie Joe Armstrong’s lyrics, then let the amber liquid set my throat on fire and ease the knot of confused, hurting thoughts in my head. I was at someone’s party, although I couldn’t remember whose. All I knew was that Louisa and Rebecca were right alongside me, chasing shot after shot of vodka with whiskey. It made no sense but we were long past that part of the night anyway. We had lost Luke and Lilah to the crowded dancefloor ages ago, and I suspected they had left the party to indulge in festivities of a different kind.

The two sisters laughed at something one of them said, and I vainly struggled to understand what they were going on about. Eventually I just gave up. My head was swimming and I didn’t feel like doing much of an effort. I was tired, but not the kind of tired sleep could fix. So I resorted to alcohol. I turned around on my stool, bottle in hand, and surveyed the crowd, my gaze passing over hundreds of unknown faces until it locked on the one person I’d hoped to avoid, sending a dull ache down to my heart.

He was smirking down at a pair of boobs on a pair of legs who was clinging to his chest and slobbering all over him. Just as I considered throwing up on the spot, he looked up and caught my stare dead-on. The smile disappeared from his face, leaving a dark glare in its stead. I swallowed hard and made up my mind in a flash. Perhaps the alcohol was fuelling my sudden burst of courage, but I needed to tell him. I needed to tell him that I was sorry I’d hurt him in this way. I wasn’t expecting him to want to start over, I knew I had screwed things up, but I couldn’t stand the idea of him hating me forever.

So I downed my drink, slid from the stool and made my way accross the dancefloor to where he stood. By the time I’d made my way across the room, the girl had disappeared and he was watching me advance on him emotionlessly. There was a purple hickey blossoming on the side of his neck. I bit my lip.

“Calum I… I um…” I stuttered, the unspoken words getting tangled in my mouth as I vainly tried to make sense of my thoughts. “I just…I’m sorry about how we ended things. I uh…I know I really deserve it but I don’t like that you hate me and it hurts and I don’t know what to do. Because it was all a dare, it was all supposed to be a dare and then I liked you and I was confused and I didn’t know how to act and I followed the plan and I just… I’m just so sorry…” I trailed off, my eyes burning with undshed tears.

He cocked his head a little to the side.

“Do you hear that?”

I stared uncomprehendingly at him, frowning slightly. A harsh smile curled his mouth.

“It’s the sound of me not giving of fuck,” he said, his light tone cold as ice.

Cold as the look in his eyes. Cold as the feeling that slowly spread in my chest, turning my insides to lead. I’d never understood how people could call him mean before. Arrogant, yes, annoying, hell yeah, but downright mean? No. And now…well now I got it.

I started nodding my head really rapidly, almost frantically as I tried to tell myself to keep breathing, tears welling up in my ears. I gave him a slightly hysterical smile and backed away from him, my confused mind refusing to comprehend the torment of pain radiated through all of my body. I trudged through the crowd blindly, finally finding a wall to lean against as my last pieces of rationality rebelled against the hurt that was crushing me. 

Eventually my mind just shut down, body following suit as I fell to the groud in exhaustion. I wrapped my arms around my knees and hugged them close to my chest as I clenched my eyes shut and tried to just forget it all. I didn’t know how much time had passed when I felt someone crouch next to me.

“Let’s go home, aye?” The Australian voice I immediately identified as Ethan’s asked.

I nodded numbly and let him pull me up and lead me to his his car, where he made me seat shotgun. I heard Louisa exclaim something from the backseat and a tired chuckle escaped Ethan’s lips.

“No, Jen and I did not get it on in the backseat. You’re safe.”

She said something along the lines of ‘thank fucking god’ and then I stopped paying attention, sleep gnawing at me. I leaned my head against the car window and fell asleep.


	40. Daylight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG THIS IS THE CHAPTER EVERYONE (OKAY MAYBE JUST ME) HAS BEEN WAITING FOR!!! 
> 
> The DAYLIGHT one!!! yaaahhh
> 
> pls pls listen to the song at the same time??

CHAPTER 40: Daylight – 5 Seconds of Summer

Calum’s POV:

My head was whirling and I pushed my way out of the room. I’d been to Rafaël’s several times before, so I knew my way around, but there were so many people and my thoughts were such a mess that it took me a while to find the staircases leading to the bedrooms upstairs. Rafaël had clearly stated no-one was allowed upstairs, so I guessed I would be left alone and in peace there.

As soon as I walked into the empty corridor, a sigh passed through my lips and I leaned against the wall miserably. I couldn’t think straight. My mind was filled with anger and sorrow and Cami’s blue eyes and resentment and her lips and hurt and confusion and longing. I didn’t know what to make of it and I just wished Mike was here. But he hated parties and had stayed home. Fuck that. I would have called him, but my phone was nowhere to be found. So I just took a deep breath and tried to organize my thoughts.

First off, I replayed the scene that had just taken place. Cami had actually come up and tried to excuse herself for her behavior. I couldn’t believe the nerve of the girl. It was one thing to play me, it was another to pretend to be sorry only so that she could make a total fool out of me again. Suddenly I was reminded Grace’s comment about hearing Cami cry in the bathroom. I was reminded the hurt on her face as I basically told her to fuck off, except meaner. But I couldn’t help it. I mean, I had to have some sense of self-defense! I wasn’t about to let her break my heart all over again!

But what if she’d actually meant it? What if she truly was sorry for what she’d done? Her words kept replaying in my mind: “and then I liked you and I was confused…” Had she really liked me then? It hadn’t all been an act. But in some way, I’d always known that. She couldn’t have made everything up. But that fact just made it that much harder to accept that she’d been able to fuck it all up for a dare. She might have appreciated my company, but she’d mocked me and left me in the dust all the same. And then been cold towards me until she suddenly got drunk and said she was sorry. Like, what the fuck? Was she trying to kill me? It was a bit too late to feel remorseful, or jealous of the girls hanging off my arms. Not that I actually wanted any of them. Because despite everything I told myself, she was still the only one I wanted.

Mike had told me something a week ago about Cami. About how she’d gotten me exactly where she wanted me. Always keeping me on my toes, giving me just enough to get addicted but not enough to be satisfied. And now I was suffering from serious withdrawal symptoms. Whatever she’d done to me, I wasn’t remotely close from breaking free from it. And despite knowing it was wrong and that all it would do is hurt me, I couldn’t help but wishing I could be in her arms again.

But in the end, I knew these thoughts were meaningless. Because despite my desires and remnants of love – who was I kidding, the love I still felt – it wouldn’t lead anywhere. Even if she did like me… Even if she had sincerely started to like me…I couldn’t. I couldn’t take another chance on her. Because I wasn’t ready to start again, and I doubted I ever could. She had positively ruined me.

...

“Calum?” The friendly voice broke off my trail of thought and I looked up into Rafaël’s brown eyes. “Hey man, what are you doing up here?”

“Oh sorry, I know you didn’t want us up here,” I briefly excused myself, while not really being sorry at all.

“It’s fine. It was mostly so people didn’t start fucking in my bedroom. What’s up?”

“Was just thinking,” I shrugged, wondering if he was gonna leave me alone.

There must have been something in my voice because his eyebrows furrowed and he shrugged.

“Alright, you do you. Just…don’t take a girl up here.”

When I didn’t answer, he sent me another look, slightly worried this time.

“Do you need anything?”

“Do you have Mike’s number?” I asked him.

“Yeah. Don’t have your phone?”

“Left it somewhere downstairs.”

“Ah yeah, the place is a mess. Guess you’ll find it tomorrow. Here,” he said, handing me the phone.

“Thanks. What were you doing up here?”

“I was gonna grab something from my room. I’ll just go do that while you make your call, yeah?”

I waved him off and called Mike up.

“Hello? Rafaël?” Came my best friend’s voice slightly groggily. “Please don’t tell me you drunk-dialed me because your party sucks without me. I love you but no.”

“It’s Calum.”

“Cal?”

“Yeah.”

There was a silence.

“Is something wrong? Did something happen?”

I took a sharp breath, about to spill everything, when Rafaël came back from his room. I pursed my lips.

“Never mind,” I mumbled. “Talk to you later.”

I ended the call before Mike had a chance to reply and handed the phone back to the host of the party, following him down the stairs again. The party was still going strong, but as I almost subconsciously swept my eyes across the room, I didn’t see Cami or any of her friends for that matter. Not that I really wanted to see them anyway. I saw Grace approach me out of the corner of my eye and took a split-second decision.

I almost jogged in my hurry to get away from the party. I needed some fresh air, and I needed to stop thinking so much. So I went over to where I’d parked Betty, figuring I’d just come back for my phone later.

I started up the bike and immediately a relieved smile spread across my face. At least she would always be there for me. The engine roared as I accelerated, and I started my race against the stars, the wind whipping my face deliciously. Little after little I could feel my worries and cares leaving me as I sped on. Betty always made me feel so free. Free of my problems, free of society’s bounds, free of my body. It was amazing. I grinned up at the dimly lit half-moon, silently thanking the night for letting me cherish those precious seconds of pure, unaldurated contentment.

 

Too bad I didn’t see the car.


	41. Drown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry for the drama (lol not)

CHAPTER 41: Drown – Bring Me the Horizon

Cami’s POV:

The sound of Bring Me the Horizon’s Drown woke me up roughly. I scrounged up my nose, trying to find the source of the music blindly in the dark. Eventually my hand collided with my phone, and I stared at the screen. Unknown incoming call, it said. It also said 04:23 am. I’d only been asleep for two hours. What the hell? The only people I knew who’d call me that late were Louisa, Luke and Lilah (wow my friends were crazy) and I knew for a fact they were all home and sleeping the alcohol off soundly at the moment. Plus Lilah’s family had invited Luke to spend the weekend away with them, so there was no way they were drunk-dialing me to join their movie-marathon or something. The phone started ringing again, and I remembered with dismay how Drown was Calum’s favorite song. I sighed heavily and took the call.

“Hello?”

“Cami? Oh thank god!”

“Um, who is this?”

“It’s Grace.”

I blinked, a bad feeling starting to tug at me.

“What do you want?” I asked warily. 

“It’s Calum,” she stated, and by her tone of voice I immediately knew something was wrong. “He was in an accident.”

...

The next hour was a blur. I somehow managed to get Grace to tell me what hospital he was in and before I knew it a cab was taking me there. I hadn’t even taken the time to warn my parents, I’d just left in the middle of the night. I’d just call them later. At the moment my nerves were eating me up and I had trouble comprehending what was going on. He’d been in an accident. He’d been taken to the emergency room. The doctors wouldn’t say anything. He’d been in an accident. He’d been in an accident. He’d been in an accident.

My breaths were shallow and my head spun as I threw some money to the cab driver and ran towards the hospital entrance. Some people looked at me weirdly as I raced towards the lobby but I didn’t spare them a glance. My heart was lodged somewhere in my throat as I simply refused to consider the questions gnawing at me.

“Calum Hood?” My voice came out squeaky and frail.

The lady looked at me in disinterest.

“Are you a family member?”

My face paled. Weren’t they gonna let me in? Let me know what was going on? I stared at the lady in horror. Didn’t she understand? Didn’t she understand that Calum, my Calum, my favorite dorky badboy, had been in an accident?

“Girlfriend, then?”

I almost laughed. Shook my head. She shrugged and waved towards one of the waiting rooms carelessly. I couldn’t even see straight as I fought my trembling limbs and walked over to the place she’d pointed out. The thought that he might be seriously injured made me sick to my stomach. I bit my lip and dropped my head between my hands, images of Calum covered in blood flashing through my mind. He’d been found almost an hour after being hit by the car, Grace had said. He’d left the party early. The car had percutated him and then left. My arms were shaking. He’d lied in his own blood for an hour. For a whole hour until someone randomly drove by and called an ambulance. The bike – Betty – had been completely smashed. Nothing left.

A sob raked through me, but I somehow managed to push it down. I couldn’t. I couldn’t cry right now. The worst part is that I wouldn’t know. I wouldn’t know if he was doing okay or if he was in surgery or if he was dead. The mere thought caused a whimper to escape my lips, and I grounded my teeth together. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be dead. He wasn’t allowed to be dead. He just…no. He couldn’t be dead. But truth is I wouldn’t know because I wasn’t his anything. Not family, not girlfriend. I wasn’t anything to him and if he died he would die with me as his nothing and the implosion of my world wouldn’t be understood by anyone because I had no claim on him. But god knew my world still revolved around his smile.

I didn’t know how much time had passed by when I saw a nurse come out from the corridor leading to where I knew Calum was. I knew because I’d been staring at the door fixedly since I’d seen Mali Koa sprint towards it in tears. Instantly I was on my feet, my morbid thoughts replaced by white-hot agony spreading through my veins as I frantically ran up to the nurse. She came to an abrupt halt as I caught hold of her arm.

“Let me go!” She exclaimed, her shocked expression telling me just how crazed I must look.

I did not give a single fuck.

“Please, I need to know!” I pleaded.

“What?”

“I need to know if he’s okay!”

She quickly gave me a once-over and her eyes softened a bit.

“Who?”

“Calum Hood. Seventeen years old, tan skin, dark hair, tattoos. Bike accident,” I spewed off, my eyes anxiously strained on her as my stomach churned.

“I’m so sorry—“ She started, and immediately I paled. 

The white walls were out of focus as a buzzing sound started resonating in my ears.

“No no no no, he’s not dead. He’s not dead, calm down! Don’t panic, just breathe, breathe with me—“

I hadn’t even noticed I was dry-heaving until she put her hand on my shoulder. I jumped at the contact but she kept staring at me in concentration.

“Hey, I need you to breathe with me, can you do that?”

I nodded over and over again as I tried to follow her breathing pattern, my vision slowly clearing up. Eventually my slight panic attack subsided and I stared at her pleadingly.

“Please tell me what’s going on,” I said weakly.

The nurse bit her lip.

“The surgery had a…slight complication, so it lasted longer than we thought. But—but he should be fine,” she hastily added, seeing my eyes widen in horror. “He should um, wake up soon. Ish. We think.”

“You think?” I repeated numbly.

There was a beeping noise and she reached for her pager. She sent me an apologetic smile.

“Hey, I’m sorry, I’m needed somewhere else. You just, wait over there, and don’t worry your pretty head too much. He’s probably gonna be just peachy.”

And with that, she was gone. I was unable to even think. Probably? They thought? Don’t worry? Worry was eating me up. I almost gagged and sat back down on my seat. My eyes went back to their travel between clock and door, my heart in my throat. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, I started crying. Softly, silently, the kind of crying that burns your throat and makes your heart throb as you try to contain the small sobs. I hugged my knees to my chest and hid my face behind them as I tried to calm myself down. Maybe he’d be fine. Maybe he’d walk out there and smile his 1000watt smile and everything would be okay. Maybe…maybe I wouldn’t ever see him again. I reached for my phone blindly, calling Luke up before I even knew what number my fingers were dialing. 

“Hello? Cami? Why are you calling me at 11am on a Saturday?”

My eyes jumped to the clock. I’d been staring at it for a while but I hadn’t even noticed what time it was. And then I realized he must be well on his way to his weekend destination. I couldn’t do this to him. I couldn’t ruin his cute weekend with Lilah because I was a pathetic sob story who cared too much about a boy she’d slighted. He deserved better than this. So I just hung up.

I tried to muffle my crying in the oversized sweater I’d randomly thrown on on my frantic way out of the house. Over the next couple of hours, I did nothing but sit in that exact position, eyes strained on the door while also ding my best to ignore the swirling thoughts threatening to take over my mind. I ignored my phone when it rang and ignored my stomach when it rumbled. I couldn’t concentrate on anything but the fact that the boy I was in love with was fighting for his life and I wasn’t there to hold his hand while he did. 

Not that he’d want me to anyway. He hated me. And I had brought it all down on myself, so I had no right whatsoever to complain. My lips stretched into an ugly, bitter smile as tears brimmed in my eyes again. Worthless.

I was worthless.


	42. Disappear (Remember when)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> luv that song

CHAPTER 42: Disappear (Remember When) – Issues

Calum’s POV:

My head was killing me. I let out a plaintive noise and immediately there was shuffling around me.

“He’s awake!” I heard a hushed whisper, and someone gasped.

I furrowed my brows and slightly opened an eye, whimpering as the light blinded me and squeezing it shut again. Where was I? I racked my brain for the last thing I remembered and I could vaguely see headlights blinding me. A slam on the side of my bike. A crash. Fuck! I’d had an accident! My eyes flew open and I stared right up to my mom’s worried face.

“Calum!” She exclaimed and almost pulled me into a hug, but someone held her back.

“Don’t suffocate him!” Mali yelled.

My eyes shot from one to the other, and behind them to see a pale Mike meeting my gaze, his jaw clenched in a way that made me think he’d really been eaten up by worry. So did the glistening trails of tears on his cheeks. A quick glance at my mom and sister’s face told me that they had cried too. Somehow I couldn’t help myself as I threw another sweeping glance around the room, desperately looking for something that was missing. I didn’t know what I’d expected, but my heart deflated further as I came up empty. Of course she wouldn’t be there. I sensed Mike’s gaze on me and his sorrowful eyes told me he knew. And he was sorry. I gulped and detached my gaze to look at my family. 

“I’m sorry your dad isn’t here,” my mom said, having apparently noticed me looking around, and misunderstanding because how could she possibly know any better? “His work didn’t allow him to leave Scotland. I promised to call as soon as you woke up.”

“What happened?” I croaked out, not acknowledging her words.

“You were hit by a car,” my mom said in a wobbly tone. “They had to operate but you’d lost so much blood they didn’t know when you’d wake up.”

I swallowed and looked down at myself for the first time. My one leg was in a cast, and I had a bandage around my middle. They must have shot some serious quantity of morphine for me not to feel anything. My head still hurt some though, and I sighed heavily.

“Do you wanna make that call to dad then?” I asked my mom.

She nodded and quickly pressed a kiss on my forehead before leaving the room. Mali bit her lip anxiously.

“Do you need anything? The doctors said you could eat something if you wanted.”

“Hospital food? Ew no thank you,” I joked, trying to lighten up the mood. “No but seriously if you could get me something to drink that would be great.”

She left and I let out a breath of relief. There was just too much tension in the room, and I wasn’t used to any of my family members being affectionate. Mike on the other hand…the second Mali left the room, he rushed towards me and hugged me, carefully for once.

“For fuck’s sake Cal you killed us,” he whispered.

“I’m fine,” I defended myself.

“But you could not have been.”

“I’m fine now and it’s all that matters.”

Well, sorta. According to the crushing feeling in my stomach, the fact that Cami was absent fucking hurt. Which was completely stupid, as I knew she had never liked me, but even after several weeks it seemed wrong that she wouldn’t care. That she wouldn’t be worried at all. I swallowed harshly and Mike hesitated.

“Um, so you know Grace came by at the hospital, she’s waiting outside the room. A couple of the jocks too, but I made them fuck off…figured you wouldn’t want them there.”

I nodded appreciatively. I wouldn’t exactly want my teammates to see me in this state. At least that way I had some modicum of pride to hold on to.

“So I won’t be able to play soccer?” I asked, staring at the cast on my leg.

“Well apparently it’s not broken, just a really bad sprain. So you should be fine in a few weeks.”

“Okay.”

“Do you—um do you mind telling Grace if she can come in? Because she’s been bothering me forever,” Mike grimaced, waving his phone at me.

I internally groaned but nodded, a tiny bit touched that she would care enough to wait for me outside. Not like Cami. And Grace hadn’t even pretended to be my real girlfriend. I guessed it was at times like these when you saw someone’s true colors. Fuck it hurt. Then again chances were Cami didn’t even know, because I was supposed to be completely over her and all. So why would anyone have informed her?

Grace waltzed in the second Mike opened the door, followed closely by a confused Mali who handed me a glass of water without a word. She leaned against the wall and simply watched the exchange between my friends and I silently.

“Calum! How are you?”

I shrugged noncommitally. 

“I’m okay I guess.”

“The doctors say you’ll be up and about in one week,” Mike informed us.

“That’s great!” Grace gushed. “God, I was so fucking worried about you Calum! I know I was never your real girlfriend and all, but I really consider you a friend so you better not care me like this ever again.”

“Ditto,” Mike agreed.

“I’ll do my best,” I lightly smirked, then dropped the smile as a horrible thought stroke me. “What happened to Betty? Is she okay too?”

“Betty? Who’s Betty?” Grace asked in confusion. “If you’re talking about the person who ran you over, that cowardly asshole hasn’t given any sign of life.”

“No, Betty my bike!”

“Um, excuse me what?”

Mike rolled his eyes.

“He called his motorcycle Betty.”

I noticed the use of the past tense and felt my heart drop to the floor.

“She didn’t survive, did she?”

Mike sighed, the corners of his mouth drooping slightly.

“I’m sorry Calum… I’m sure your dad will buy you another one. A better one.”

I sighed and dropped my gaze to my fingers, refraining from uttering the childish, cliché words of ‘but I don’t want a better one, I want Betty!’. Because that bike held so many memories. Somehow I felt that if I let go of her, I was letting go of the sense of happiness she’d always brought along, as well as any trace of Cami I had left.  
Grace coughed a little bit, apparently not really comfortable in the silence that signified my mourning of a bike.

“So uh,” she said, obviously groping for a different subject of conversation, “does Cami know you’re awake yet?”

All of our head turned to her in shock.

“What?” I managed.

She frowned, looking at Mike and Mali.

“She hasn’t come by yet?”

“Why would she? She doesn’t even know.”

“Yes she does, I called her as soon as I found out.”

“You did what?”

Grace blinked repeatedly, obviously at a loss.

“I’m just—I’m really confused. Are you sure she didn’t come by while you were still out?”

“I haven’t left the room since he got in,” Mike stated, “and she hasn’t dropped by.”

“I thought…”

“You thought what?” I asked harshly. “That she’d care? That she’d come and excuse herself for having played me? Ask forgiveness for having broken my heart?” I could see Grace wincing at my pent-up anger and Mali gaping at me from where she stood, but couldn’t bring myself to stop. “You thought what, exactly? Because she doesn’t. She doesn’t give a shit. I’ve accepted it and it’s high time you did too!”

Of course, that was a lie. I knew, I knew she didn’t love me but that didn’t mean I’d accepted it. But there was no other option than acting angry against Grace when my insides were burning because Cami actually knew and she hadn’t come see me. She hadn’t even asked Mike or Mali or someone if I was fine.

Grace was spared from answering when the door opened and my mom walked inside. She sent a quick smile to Grace, having always been a fan of hers. I was grateful she didn’t ask why the girl I’d said had never been a serious girlfriend was here and the one I’d claimed to be into wasn’t. My mom pursed her lips.

“The doctor’s gonna give you a check up and then he says you need to rest a bit.”

...

I drifted in and out of consciousness over the next few hours, occasionally hearing snippets of conversation or catching a glance of my family and Mike. When I actually woke up, however, only was Mike in the room. He looked up from his phone as he heard me shuffle underneath his sheets, and he smiled. At my questioning glance, he shrugged.

“Your mom and sister went home to get something to eat and drink. And sleep.”

“What time is it?” I asked with a yawn.

“About eight pm?”

“And you didn’t go home?” I asked in disbelief. 

“Yeah I did, I napped early afternoon then came back and managed to detach your fam from your bedside. They’ve been up since 3am, needed some rest.”

I nodded.

“Thanks.”

“No problem, bro.”

“When did Grace leave?”

“About the same time at me.”

There was a comfortable silence as Mike sat on the chair next to my head and played a game on his phone while I watched. It was interrupted when his phone suddenly started ringing. The name flashed over the screen and we both frowned in total confusion.

Incoming call: Luke.


	43. Hold on till may

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is one of my favorite chapters :3
> 
> also pay attention THIS IS IN MIKE'S POV

CHAPTER 43: Hold on till May – Pierce the Veil

Mike’s POV:

“What the fuck?” Calum said, voicing my thoughts perfectly.

I raised my eyebrows, traded a look with my best friend and glanced back down at the buzzing phone.

“I’m gonna take it,” I decided.

“Hello? Is this Michael?” I easily recognized Luke’s deep voice.

“Um, yeah? You kinda called my number so…” I mocked him lightly.

Surprisingly, he didn’t take the bait.

“Have you seen Cami?”

I didn’t know what I was expecting, but definitely not this. My eyes flittered to a confused-looking Calum.

“No,” I gritted out.

Just the thought of what she’d done to Calum made my blood boil. As for Luke…let’s just say the only reason I wasn’t strangling him right now was that I didn’t wanna worry Calum.

“Do you have any idea where she might be?” He sounded worried, anxious even.

“No.” I hesitated. “Why?”

“Because her parents are crazy with worry. They haven’t seen her all day and she isn’t answering her calls. And I’m not in Sydney so I can’t go looking for her. I…are you sure you have no idea where she could be? She’s not at Calum’s?”

“Calum was in an accident.”

I heard Luke gasp fromt the other side of the line. My eyebrows flew upwards, surprised that he’d even care.

“Oh my god. Can’t you like, look for her in the hospital? Please?”

“Why the fuck would she be here?”

“Trust me, she will. Just please, please do this.”

I could just picture his baby-blue eyes begging me, and swallowed hard, sending a glance Calum’s way. He was frowning at me, obviously more than a bit curious as to why I was having a civilized conversation with the person who’d become my archenemy again.

“Okay.”

And it wasn’t even because I knew deep down Calum would want Cami to be safe, because he still loved her, despite what he claimed. It wasn’t even because I still cared about her in some way. She’d been a cool girl to hang out with until she’d ripped Calum’s heart out of his chest. It was because of the sheer anxiety in Luke’s voice; the fact that he’d let down all of his walls and accepted to be near tears on the phone with the person he was supposed to hate, all because he loved his bestie so much, made my chest tight for some reason.

“Thank you,” Luke breathed. “Thank you so much. Please call me if you find her!”

“Yeah, I will. Bye.”

I hung up and licked my lips. 

“What was that all about?” Calum asked. 

“Nothing. I’m gonna grab some coffee,” I told him, standing up. “You stay here,” I joked.

“Ha-ha. Very funny. Jackass.”

“Love you too,” I winked.

The second I was out the door, my smirk faded and I felt slight worry grip me. Where the hell could she be? If she even was here, I reminded myself. It was strange, really, how Luke was so sure Cami would be at the hospital. It didn’t make any sense, but I figured the blond knew her best, so I might as well do as he asked. Couldn’t hurt. I walked randomly down the corridors, looking for long legs and Bambi-like blue eyes.

After twenty minutes of searching, I was almost about to call Luke and tell him she wasn’t here when I caught eye of a girl sitting alone on a chair in one of the waiting rooms. The only reason I even noticed her was because she was wearing the same sweater as Calum owned. Could it be? Just then, she looked up, and I was met with Cami’s red-rimmed eyes. She let out a quiet gasp and was on her feet in seconds, running towards me.

“Is he okay? Is he awake? Is everything better? He’s not dead? Please tell me he’s not dead? He’s alright, right? He has to be. He has to be fine, right? Nothing’s bad? You wouldn’t be here if it was bad, right? Please just tell me he’s okay—“

I cut her off by gripping her forearms.

“Hey hey hey calm down. Calm down, Cami. He’s alright, he’s okay. Don’t worry, he’s okay.”

She stared at me with her huge blue eyes.

“He’s okay?” She repeated dumbly. “He’s okay?”

“Yeah, he’s okay.”

At this point, I was starting to get really worried about her. She was incredibly pale and if the dark shadows under her eyes were any indication, she hadn’t gotten much sleep.

“Okay. Okay,” she whispered softly under her breath. “He’s okay. Okay. Everything’s okay.” She cut herself off, fixing her sharp gaze on me. “Everything’s okay?”

“Everything’s okay,” I nodded. I took another look at her and winced. “Do you wanna…do you wanna see him for yourself? To see that he’s okay?”

Her eyes widened and she shook her head madly. 

“No no no no no he doesn’t want me to. He doesn’t like me, he doesn’t want me there.” She started laughing softly, a crazed, utterly sad laugh that sent shivers down my spine. “He hates me.”

I wanted to tell her that wasn’t true, but it simply wasn’t my place. And I wasn’t even sure it wasn’t true, at least to some extent. So I turned to other, more important matters.

“How long have you been here?”

“Um I don’t know… Grace woke me up at 4h24.”

“Pm, you mean?”

“Am. The morning,” she added, as if it clarified anything.

“Wait. You’re saying you’ve been here for fucking fifteen hours?”

She nodded hesitantly.

“What time did you go to sleep last night?” I asked.

I suddenly remembering Calum’s hesitant call from the night before. Surely it meant Cami had been there and something had gone down between the two of them.

“Two in the morning I think.”

I groaned.

“Did you even get anything to eat?”

She shook her head.

“Drink?”

She shook her head again.

“Oh my god you fucking idiot. We’re going home, now.”

“Home? But, but what about Ca—“

“I told you he’s fine. Now let’s get you home. Your parents are worried sick about you. Not to mention Luke. Why the fuck didn’t you answer their calls?”

Cami stayed silent but let me lead her towards the exit of the hospital and across the parking lot to my car.

“Get in.”

Again, I was met with no resistance. Thank god I remembered her address because she was in no state to guide me to her place. She simply sat in the front seat next to me, her head hanging numbly and fingers curled against her thighs. As I drove, I picked up my phone and dialed Luke’s number.

“Hey, it’s Mike.”

“Mike! Did you find Cami?”

“Yeah. I’m on my way to her home right now.”

“Oh thank god.”

“You’re welcome,” I half-joked.

“Is she okay?”

I glanced at her.

“No. Not very.”

“Okay. Fuck. Alright I’m gonna call her parents to let them know you’re on the way. Thank you for everything.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I mean it.”

“I know.”

I ended the call and spent the next few minutes of the way in silence. Somehow I couldn’t make myself turn the radio on, even though this situation with Cami was uncomfortable as hell, not to mention scary. But there was just something that stopped me. Maybe it was the fact that I knew she was in this state because of my best friend. It was incredible to me that after all this time thinking she’d played Calum and used him in the most horrible way, she was just as fucked as me when she even thought about the possibility of him getting hurt. I could see how the worry had eaten her up all day. And the fact that she was so sure he hated her had made her refrain from actually going to see whether he was okay, leaving her alone with her damaging thoughts. I just…I knew the feeling.

So I shut my mouth and made sure she got home safe.


	44. Outer space/Carry on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My fav song that 5sos have ever made probs
> 
> kudos and comment if you like? :3

CHAPTER 44: Outer Space/Carry on – 5 Seconds of Summer

Calum’s POV:

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I was alone in the hospital room. With a yawn, I called for a nurse to give me some food. By some miracle my phone hadn’t even gotten a scratch on it in the accident, so I picked it up from my nightstand and opted on watching some stupid YouTube videos while eating my (disgusting) breakfast. My mom interrupted Tyler Oakley midsentence as she called me and I huffed an annoyed breath before taking the call.

“Hey mom.”

“Hey baby, are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m good. Do you know when I’m let out?”

“You know the doctors said a week.”

I groaned.

“Yeah but I’m feeling good. Why can’t I just leave?”

“Because you’re following the doctors’ advice,” my mom said tightly.

I sighed and let it go.

“So what are you doing?” She asked, her voice much nicer, and I couldn’t help a scoff.

“It’s quite funny how you suddenly seem to care about that when I get hurt. Maybe I should get into accidents more often, if it’s the only way to get your attention.”

The words came tumbling out of my mouth, low and bitter, before I could stop them, and I heard my mom take a sharp breath. With a roll of my eyes, I hung up. I didn’t feel like owning up to what I’d said, but I wasn’t in a mood to excuse myself. To be honest, I was still more than a bit upset about what had happened yesterday. Not only had I found out that Cami knew that I’d gotten into an accident and hadn’t made a move to find out how I was, but Mike had left after getting a call from Luke. He’d told me he was getting a cup of coffee and then never came back, only sending me a text at around eleven pm about how he’d explain everything tomorrow.

Mike only arrived at around midday, an apologetic look in his eyes.

“Sorry, my mom wouldn’t let me come visit any sooner.”

“It’s fine,” I said shortly.

“So…about yesterday. I lied to you, you know, when Luke called and I said it was nothing.”

“I know.”

“Yeah.”

“So what was it?” I insisted, annoyed with his stalling.

“He wanted me to look for Cami.”

I felt like someone punched me in the chest and rid me of all the air in my lungs.

“What?”

“Basically he was out of town and he got a call from Cami’s parents saying they hadn’t seen her all day. And she wouldn’t answer her phone, so he asked if I knew where she was. And when I told him you were in an accident, he wanted me to look for her in the hospital.”

I let out a breathless laugh.

“That’s ridiculous. There’s no reason you would have found her here. She wasn’t here. You didn’t find her…did you?” I added hesitantly.

“I did.”

“But…what? I don’t understand. I thought she didn’t care? She didn’t come see me,” I said almost frantically, trying to hold on to my sanity because this was getting so fucking complicated and I didn’t want my hopes to get crushed again.

“She uh…she was a mess. She only got two hours of sleep that night and she stayed in one of the waiting rooms forever without eating or drinking or going home because she was so worried about you. And…and she literally, she literally attacked me when she saw me,” he said, letting out a little, disbelieving laugh. “Honestly she was almost hysterical and…yeah it scared me. So I got her home and made sure she was as okay as she could be. And by then my mom called me and demanded I go home so I couldn’t come back here and tell you what had happened.”

I blinked, my mind refusing to understand what he was saying.

“She didn’t come see me,” I repeated.

“She thinks you hate her,” Mike said harshly. “And I would love to be able to continue saying that you should hate her, but after this…I just can’t anymore,” he shrugged.

“Are you…are you saying she cares about me?” I asked in a tiny voice, trying to rein back the hope slowly forming in my chest.

“She stayed in a hospital for fucking fifteen hours not doing anything but waiting for someone to tell her you were okay, and refused to come see you because she thought you wouldn’t like that. So yeah, I think she cares about you. But fuck me if I understand what the hell is going on between you two.”

Well, that made two of us.

...

Cami didn’t come visit me once during the following week, but Grace was here from time to time, along with some of my jock friends. Mike was at my bedside almost the whole week, completely ignoring the whole ‘school’ issue. Then again, at the rate we skipped classes anyway, this didn’t make much of a difference. I couldn’t help re-running Mike’s words in my head. But surely if she really, really cared she would come see me, no? Except she thought I absolutely hated her. Well, I had basically told her to get lost last time we spoke, so I guess she had every reason to think so. The whole situation was driving me mad, not to mention the fact that I wasn’t allowed out of my bed for a whole week, so you can only imagine my happiness when I was finally let out of the hospital.

On Friday night, Mali drove me home. I spent the night my bed, eating beautifully greasy takeout and playing video games with Mike. Mali would come by and check up on us every other minute, it was a bit unnerving. But sweet. I would never have thought she would worry that much about me, and it kinda reminded me of when we were kids and closer than we were now. My parents were away, and I hadn’t really spoken to any of them since mouthing my mom off on the phone. I didn’t really feel like seeing them either, so no problem there.

The following two days, I went right back to training in football. I’d lost so much training time with that one week, I really needed to get back on track. And to hell with that sprained ankle. That wasn’t gonna stop me from making my team win. However, my trainer more or less managed to convince me to take it slow. Course that didn’t mean I didn’t score every goal assigned. Honestly I kinda needed the ego boost, what with spending so much time in bed questioning myself and my relationship with Cami.

Speaking of her, I didn’t get any sign of her until Monday morning. The second I saw her in the corridor, my heart jumped to my throat and waited for her to see me, to…what exactly? I didn’t know. But definitely not to ignore me as she walked on to her next class, grinning at the boy she was talking to. I tried to ignore the sinking feeling in my chest and walked on myself, head held high. What the fuck had just happened? Of course she hadn’t been that worried about me, it made no sense that she would. But from what Mike had told me…I was just expecting her to at least acknowledge me. But I guessed we were back to the whole ‘ignoring’ thing. Fucking hell. 

On the other hand, I was swarmed by hungry girls asking me how I was and if they could do anything to make me feel better (yep, definitely…). It was surprisingly easy to jump right back into the routine of flirting and fucking for nothing. But it just didn’t feel the same anymore. My time over the next couple of weeks was spent training, chilling with Mike, chatting up girls and staring at Cami as she led her life.

Except I noticed a couple of things that only served to confuse me more. As the stalker I’d grown to become, I saw that she didn’t eat enough. That her usually so bright eyes had dimmed. That she didn’t smile as often as before. That she wouldn’t always raise her hand in English or French class. And I wondered if it had anything to do with me, and I started to question everything. Because had it been this way before I got into an accident and I was just too warped up in my feelings of hate and resentment to realize she wasn’t okay either, or was this new? Had someone hurt her? Was it just stress? The whole thing was slowly taking over my mind and once again the girl was driving me crazy. Cue to me being with other girls, to get my mind off the one who didn’t want me anymore.

But god, what I wouldn’t give for her to love me again. If she ever had, that is. But in all cases it was clear she didn’t anymore. She wouldn’t even look me in the eye anymore, and it seemed she just ignored my existence altogether. I saw her speaking to Grace once, but didn’t have the guts to ask my ex fake girlfriend what that was about. And I was so sick, I was so sick of this feeling, of the lack of knowledge as to what she thought, of the uncertainty that bathed my every day, all because I couldn’t figure out if she’d ever loved me, and if she ever could again.

So I was left to stare and worry and get lost in my swirl of confusing thoughts, all the while longing for the days when all was easier and we were just two kids in love with the sense of freedom we gave each other.

Mike and I had gone to look for a new bike on one of the weekends, and everytime I saw one, I couldn’t help imagining if Cami would like it, how she would look on it and what name she would give it. And it hurt. And I would smile and embrace it like you embrace rain tapping at your windows in the middle of the night. Because nostalgia was that bittersweet mix of feelings that hurt you but kept you going, because the only thing you could do was hope for better days. And maybe she hated me right now. Maybe she didn’t want anything to do with me. Or maybe she was just as confused as me and we just had to carry on and wait to see if we found each other again.

And maybe everything was going to get better.


	45. Miserable at best

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're nearing the end :0
> 
> give me da kudos and comments and also share if you enjoy!

CHAPTER 45: Miserable at Best – Mayday Parade

Calum’s POV:

“So what do you like to do?” The girl giggled as she sipped at the drink I just bought her.

“What or who?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

She giggled again, hiding her blushing face behing a curtain of blonde curls. I gave a small sigh and looked around the room disinterestingly. This was too easy, not to mention boring. There were the usual couples grinding on the dancefloor, the usual assholes chatting up uninterested or too-interested girls, the usual people laughing and sweating and drinking and playing stupid games.

I smiled distantly at the girl next to me as my attention was caught by a brunette doing shots on the other side of the room. A brunette I easily recognized as Lilah, one of Cami’s best friends. Did that mean she was here too? I bid my goodbyes to a very confused and disappointed girl and walked over to where some of my friends were standing, closer to Lilah.

“Hey man, what’s up?” Rafaël asked me with a bit of an awkward smile.

I knew he felt guilty about my accident because he’d let me leave the party in a bad state of mind. I’d told him time and time again that it was completely ridiculous, but it hadn’t seemed to change anything. We spoke about football for a bit until I saw James leave the group.

“Excuse me,” he smirked, “I gotta go say hi to someone.”

My eyes followed him to the entrance of the house, where I could see him animatedly chatting with someone. I was just about to look away, because there’s nothing more weird than observing a friend chatting someone up, when the girl’s smile caught my eyes. I gave her a closer look and my mouth dropped as I saw it was Cami. The nerve of the guy! Didn’t he know anything about the bro-code? What part of exes-are-a-no-no did he not understand? Then again I wasn’t exactly one to talk, so 

I resisted the urge to go punch him and simply watched as he invited her to dance. The way her face lit up was just another punch to my stomach. But I was pretty used to that by now. So I just drank my mojito, miserably watching how she giggled as they goofingly jumped around on the dancefloor. Maybe this was best for her. Maybe he could make her happy. But through all of the time I’d been his friend, James had only ever looked at girls for sex – I knew because we were the same on that respect. Until Cami. Except the only interest he’d shown in her was sexual. I distinctly remembered him asking her to be friends with benefits when we weren’t yet dating.

So I was rather dubious and disgusted and utterly jealous as I saw them dance together. Especially when the music slowed and he started putting his filthy paws on her hips and pulled her closer. I clenched my jaw and had to physically force myself to walk away and get myself another drink. It wasn’t my problem anymore, I tried to tell myself. She didn’t love me, she had every right to do what she wanted. Plus it wasn’t like I hadn’t been sleeping around. But the jealous feeling wouldn’t let go of me. By the time I got back to my friends, I saw that he had his hands resting on her butt, and she was letting him. That was the last straw.

I marched over to them and forcefully grabbed his arm.

“Get off her,” I gritted out.

“What the fuck man?” James asked, looking at me like I was crazy.

And honestly, maybe I was. Because I’d just ripped my friend off of a girl I’d dated for about a month and with whom I’d broken up weeks ago, and who was now looking at me with anger burning in her eyes. But I couldn’t seem to stop.

“Get your hands off her,” I repeated, the warning clear in my tone.

“Why the fuck should I do that?”

I glared at him seethingly.

“Because I told you too,” I said tightly, dangerously close to loosing my temper.

James must have seen it because he swallowed hard and let go of Cami, giving us a confused look. I glared at him and he cleared his throat, glancing at Cami.

“Get lost, James,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m just…uh I’m just gonna let you guys talk this out then,” he spoke before turning on his heels.

Cami crossed her arms over her chest and let out a huff a breath.

“Are you gonna explain what the fuck this was about?”

“I…” I ruffled my hair awkwardly, unsure of what to say. Unsure of what to do under her cold gaze when she hadn’t bothered to look at me for weeks now. “I don’t like him touching you like that,” I finally admitted.

“Well boo-hoo, do you want me to throw you a pity-party?”

I clenched my jaw and tried to quench my anger before I did or said something stupid.

“Cami…”

“What? You can hook up with whomever you want but I can’t dance with one guy? Where the hell is your logic in this?”

“That’s not what I call dancing.”

“I don’t give a shit what you call dancing. We haven’t spoken for weeks, you can’t just barge in and demand that I stop dancing with James!”

“But I—“ I stopped myself, my voice was too desperate and frankly I was scared of what I might say.

“You what, Calum?” She asked harshly, and then again, softer and almost pleading. “You what?”

I shook my head, letting out a frustrated breath, and just left. There was nothing I could do, I was way out of line and I knew it. But it didn’t stop the burning feeling of betrayal in my gut, and I was seething with anger. And sadness, actually. My helplessness was killing me inside.

I went right over to the bar and got another drink. Harder alcohol, this time. ‘But what, Calum?’ But I love you for fuck’s sake. I turned around and saw a girl walking up to me, a smile stretching her lips.

“Hello, you.”

“Hello.”

“So you’re the famous Calum, huh?” She purred. “Or infamous, more like…”

I smirked at her and reached a lazy hand over to her bra strap, which had fallen to the side, pulling it back up.

“What is it that you heard then, pretty thing?”

She narrowed her eyes, a luscious smile at her red-painted lips. 

“How about you just show me?”

My eyebrows shot up, surprised at the directness. 

“How about we start with my talent for guessing people’s favorite drinks?”

She shrugged, obviously a bit surprised by how I wasn’t getting to the point – or the bedroom, in this case – immediately. It’s called letting the tension build, love. I mixed impressing her by choosing her favorite drink (it’s sheer genius) with seemingly random but extremely well-placed touches. Within ten minutes I had her really worked up, but the time this was taking had also made place for second-guessing. I tried to ignore the voice in my head telling me this wasn’t what I wanted to do, but the truth was I didn’t really want to prove Cami right once again.

I didn’t get a chance to do anything about this, though, as suddenly a drink was splashed over the girl’s face and she let out a screech. I turned around in shock to see a furious and slightly drunk-looking Cami, empty glass in hand. She turned to me and smiled.

“She’s wet now, isn’t that what you wanted?”


	46. Safety pin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehehehehe x))

CHAPTER 46: Safety pin – 5 Seconds of Summer

Cami’s POV:

Stupid stupid stupid. What the hell had gotten into me? This was playing right in his hands. And yet the boy had the fucking nerve to tell me to stop dancing with James and then flirt shamelessly with a random hooker. 

“What the hell?” The girl yelled, bloody murder in her eyes.

I barely sent her a glance, my attention held by Calum. His face was expressionless, but I could tell from the vein pulsing at his neck that he was angry. Very angry. What right did he have to be angry? I might have broken up with him all these weeks ago, but he wasn’t the one spending his days crying and loosing his appetite and going half-mad. Oh no, he had it just fine. The hickeys on his neck told me just that. I repressed a scream of sheer frustration and was about to turn on my heels when his arm shot out and he pulled me back to him.

“Are you gonna explain what the fuck this was about?” He mimicked me, a slight smirk at his lips.

“You asshole,” I muttered, absolutely infuriated.

“Jealous girl say what?”

I let out a cold laughter.

“I told you once and I’ll tell you again, I would never be jealous of someone who spends his days finding new fucks. I have some sense of pride, for one.”

“Oh please, you think I didn’t see you acting like a whore with James? I pulled him off of you to save your reputation. I fucking pity you.”

The words were like a slap to my face. 

“Right. Okay,” I let out another slightly disbelieving laugh and just left.

I was halfway through the room when his hand found my arm again, and I shrugged his touch away like it had burned me.

“Wait, that’s not what I meant!”

“I know exactly what you meant and you can go fuck yourself,” I spat.

“Please,” he said, almost too quiet for me to hear under the throbbing pulse of the music. “Please Cami, stop.”

“Stop what?” I tried to make it come out harshly, but failed as my throat closed up.

He kept silent but followed me as I went outside into the garden, away from the headache-inducing music and the too many and too happy people inside. I couldn’t do this anymore. He didn’t know how much being around him was unbearable to me, how much I just longed to be in his arms again and forget about the world around and I just couldn’t.

“Can you just leave?” I said tiredly. 

“Yeah I’m…I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”

His voice was gravelly and there was a small noise like a sob. I gasped, turning around to face him. It was too dark outside for me to see his face clearly.

“Are you…are you crying?” I asked, my voice frail.

“I just…I really tried to stop loving you!”

“Is this some kind of a sick joke? Cause you’re not funny!” 

“Does this look like a joke to you?” He asked harshly.

“I don’t—“

“Does this look like a fucking joke to you? Oh yes, I know how funny our relationship was for you, how funny it was to carefully wrap me around your finger and play me like a fucking puppet. But tell me, this joke of yours, do you realize how it might not be as funny for me? Did that ever occur to you, huh? And then you throw it in my fucking face and ignore me like I’m not even worth any of your glances? You think you can do all of that and then say I’m disgusting for sleeping around? Who do you think you fucking are?”

I swallowed hard and quickly blinked my tears away. Cleared my throat.

“I’m…I tried to tell you I was sorry—“

“Sorry? You think a simple fucking sorry could cut it? You broke my fucking heart!”

“Well what about my heart?” I yelled. I couldn’t take it anymore suddenly. “Do you think it was funny falling in love with you knowing you were the biggest player in the fucking universe and that you would throw me away like a ragdoll the second you got tired of me? Do you think it was funny realizing that I just couldn’t keep it fake anymore and we were both just running towards the edge of the cliff? And then you tell me you love me and I finally break it off and have to see you go right on to fucking other girls and the only thing going through my head is ‘thank god I did this because obviously I didn’t matter that much to him anyway’!”

My breaths were coming out in pants as I desperately waited for him to answer.

“You were falling in love with me?” Is all he said, in a shocked breath.

“I don’t think that’s relevant anymore,” I simply answered. 

There was a pause.

“Why did you come to the hospital?”

My eyes snapped to his.

“Because I was half-dead with worry.”

“Right. And then you went right on ignoring me.”

“Well excuse me if I thought I’d be better off ignoring you when the last thing you said to me was ‘That’s the sound of me not giving a fuck’. Do you realize that you actually told me you didn’t give a fuck about me? How’s that for a reason not to tell you I care?”

He visibly flinched.

“I couldn’t think straight,” he finally said. “You one-upped me and then pretended I didn’t exist, and I was supposed to believe your excuses?”

“Yes.”

He sighed.

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too. I’m sorry it couldn’t work out.”

“Cami wait. Did you…did you really love me back then?”

“Why do you want to know? It’s not like it’s gonna change anything now.”

“Of course it is! Fuck Cami, are you blind or what? I’m still in love with you!”

He let out a frustrated sound and then his lips came crashing onto mine. I gasped and he took the opportunity to deepen the kiss, his tongue sensually stroking the inside of my mouth. I gripped his hair and kissed him back eagerly before suddenly shoving him away.

“Why do you keep doing that?” He shouted in frustration.

“Why do you keep doing that?” I yelled back, referring to the kiss. “Maybe I don’t want you attacking me! You fucking idiot.”

“Do you love me?” He demanded harshly.

I swallowed hard and looked away. He cocked his head to the side and observed me a bit. His lip curled.

“You do love me back,” he stated.

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you do,” he said stubbornly.

I rolled my eyes.

“Yes I do,” I finally gave in. “But you’re still an asshole.”

“I know. Can I kiss you now?”

I rolled my eyes again.

“Go ahead.”

...

“Wow, you’re still here,” I said drily. “I’m surprised.”

Calum lazily opened his eyes and raised his head from the pillow.

“What?” He asked groggily.

“Kinda took you for a guy to leave after sex.”

“Shut up,” he muttered and pulled me closer to him. “It’s too early to talk.”

I stifled a chuckle against his golden skin, hiding away from the morning light coming through the windows. I peeked at the clock on my nightstand. 9:00 am. Oh dear. My mom was going to come in here any minute and probably ask me what the fuck a boy was doing in my bed. Naked in my bed. I yawned. Oh well.

“You know what?”

“What?” He hummed against my skin.

“It’s kinda ridiculous that we’re doing this when all we’ve done from the beginning is hurt each other.”

“Maybe this time two wrongs make a right,” he grinned.

“You’re so cheesy,” I chuckled and kissed his lips briefly.

Just then, someone knocked at my door.

“Cami? Breakfast is ready,” my mom said.

“I’ll be right up!” I yelled back.

I tapped Calum’s shoulder and he let out a noncommittal groan.

“Get up, you lazy thing.”

“Noooo…”

“There’s food.”

“Hmmm…”

“If you get up right now I’ll let you borrow some of my jeans.”

He raised his head, looking at me in confusion.

“Why would I want that?”

“The tighter the better, right?” I winked.

He choked on his saliva.

“Did you just say that?”

I simply laughed and got out of bed, feeling Calum’s heated gaze on me as I got dressed.

“Wear that,” he pointed at a pair of black kneesocks.

“Kneesocks?”

“Hot,” he nodded.

I rolled my eyes but wore the kneesocks, paired with black minishorts and a Bring Me the Horizon tank top. In turn, I managed to convince him to get up and get dressed, all the while looking away and blushing because damn he was perf.

Ten minutes later, we made our way to the kitchen, where my mom, Sam and Louisa were sitting, having breakfast. Everyone’s eyes widened at our entrance as they jumped back and from our messed up hair, entwined hands and Cal’s wrinkled clothes.

“Morning,” I simply said as I took a seat, tugging Cal along so he sat on the chair next to mine. “Sup?”

Louisa was the first to get over her shock.

“Okay um, what the hell? Did you guys make up? Did you have sex? Are you a thing now? Am I ever going to know why you broke up in the first place? How would you rate each other out of ten? Calum can you stop making me question why I’m dating Sam and not you? Also excuse me I have some calls to make.”

She left without letting us answer a single one of her questions and we could hear rattling off questions on the phone from the livingroom. After a moment of silence, my mom spoke up.

“So…you’re hospital boy?”


	47. Unpredictable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the last chapter :O
> 
> pls give me love

CHAPTER 47: Unpredictable – 5 Seconds of Summer

Cami’s POV:

Over the next week, I had to give all the details of our relationship to Louisa, Lilah, Rebecca, Jenifer, Ethan and Jeremy. The amount of times I’d been called ‘stupid’ was off the charts, and I couldn’t help but agree to every one of them. But in a way, it was through this pain that we’d realized how much we needed each other and because of it, we were able to let our last walls crumble down.

Calum had decided to take me out on a new first date and we’d gone to a Green Day concert, so that had to count in my top 3 favorite days ever. The news of Calum and I dating again had spread like wildfire in school, helped with the PDA Calum was so fond of and the fact that Mike and him had gotten back into the habit of eating at our table for lunch.

Speaking of the white-haired boy, our relationship had been a bit weird after the whole hospital accident, as I kept thanking him for what he’d done but refused to address a word to his best friend, but now all was good. Surprisingly enough, Luke and him were getting along very well, and so were Luke and Calum.

I’d somehow managed to convince Calum to attend most of his classes, as well as start our tutoring classes in French again. I highly suspected that he did it only so I would shut up about it, or possibly so he could turn every one of them into a make-out session. Which I was, you know, not that opposed to. But then he’d surprised me by saying he’d give me soccer – sorry, football – lessons in exchange. The first time we’d gone, on Friday, there had been an awkward moment as we stumbled upon James, but he was very polite and simply smiled at us. I was thankful he was being understanding with the whole thing, because he must have been very confused at some point. But since I hadn’t exactly lead him on about anything more than sex and that he already had girls falling on his lap every step he took, I didn’t really feel bad about it.

Speaking of which, I’d noticed some girls approaching Calum from time to time, but he was always quick to send them away, often with a smile and onto one of his friends. But in any case I knew I could trust him. I always had done so during our past relationship, and I did even more now that we were in the clear as to what our respective intentions were.

...

On Saturday of the second week, Cal rang on my doorbell, and when I asked him what he wanted, he simply took me by the hand and led me through the streets.

“Where are we going?” I whined, making him laugh.

“Stop being so impatient!”

“Just tell me what we’re going to do!”

“Ugh, are you ever gonna shut up?”

“Never!” I hesitated, and then decided I could just as well make the best out of this situation. “That is, except if you feed me.”

He shook his head at me in mock-despair and we quickly bought a fro-yo (50% each, he wouldn’t let me pay for the whole thing) at a random café before continuing our walk. Finally, after maybe half and hour during which we listened to music, made faces at each other, babbled on about stupid things and just enjoyed each other’s company and the kiss of the sun on our faces, we arrived at a garage of some sort. 

“What is this?” I asked, but already a smile was forming on my face.

Calum giggled (yes, giggled) and bowed with flourish before directing me towards the entrance of the parking, where row upon row of beautiful bikes awaited.

“Take your pick, milady.”

“Why, thank you dear sir,” I replied politely.

And then I threw my arms in the sky and ran towards the motorbikes, all the while screaming in delight. Cal ran after me, half dying of laughter at my over-the-top excitement. We spent almost two hours fangirling over every bike before eventually settling on Julia, a sleek black and silver one much alike Betty in terms of speed and power, but a bit thinner and more maniable, so that I might eventually be allowed to drive it (right, Calum?).

Calum bought it despite my protests. He said it was his parents’ early Christmas gift for him, but I had a feeling he just said that to reassure me. Anyway, he drove me home on it, and we had the slight surprise of seeing Mike and Luke already there, waiting for us.

“Mike? Is it me or is your hair purple?” I asked.

“Lilac,” Mike corrected. “You like? Luke chose it.”

“Luke chose it?” Cal repeated with a peal of laughter. “You never let me choose the color, ever!”

“I’m special,” Luke winked.

“Don’t let it get to you,” Mike rolled his eyes. “This was just a one time thing.”

“Fine, fine,” Luke said, pouting slightly. “But don’t go looking for me next time you want cuddles.”

Mike let out a plaintive sound and Luke stuck his tongue out to him.

“Hey Cami, is it okay if Ash pops in for a few hours?” Cal asked me, interrupting the two boys’ childish, yet adorable antics.

“Ashton? Sure, why?”

“Um…remember when you said we should start a band?”

“Yes…”

“That might or might not have become a thing,” Luke admitted with a self-satisfied smile.

“Okay how do I only know of this now?” I exclaimed.

“Well, we’re not exactly sure that we’re good,” Mike laughed.

“Nonsense, you have everything it takes: you’re hot, stupid and assholes,” I joked. “You’re gonna be rockstars some day!”

“I’ll take you on tour,” Cal grinned.

“Deal.”

And we sealed it with a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> VOILÀ!! that's the end of this story x)
> 
> don't forget to give me kudos, write comments, share the story, tell me what you think.... <3
> 
> love y'all


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